“It is the passion that
is in a kiss that gives to it its sweetness; it is the affection in a kiss that
sanctifies it.” –
Christian Nevell Bovee
It is early
in the morning and the aroma of my freshly brewed cup coffee is still filling
the air… the sun is beginning to shine through the venetian slats… the warmth
of the sun filtering through the window glass is creeping along my desk. The sounds of the day are awaken as is my
own spirit.
It is a new
day. One that is filled with no
deadlines of classes or papers.
Yesterday, I sat in my chair after a moment of mediation and wondered
aloud to my cat, Tigre, “what will we do today?” Her empty glance at me looked as if the words
fell into her ears and her look told me all that I expected to hear. She looked towards me flipping her tail as if
to say that it was my issue to deal with and then she looked away.
We find
ourselves many times moving from one busy schedule to another like high flying
artist that glide from one high swing to the next. Our only safety net is the one that we have
created in our own minds. We move from one event to another… always… expecting...
another… event… to be there for us… to… grasp.
I was wondering
a few weeks ago about this issue of “passion”.
I was in the
midst of a therapeutic shift that unbeknownst to me was already in place, much
like a hidden treasure in the kitchen cupboards of your grandparent’s home. This shift that I was going through was like
finding a part of me that I had never recognized before and all I could do was
smile. In fact after I had become aware
of this shift, I sat with my therapist relating to her my discovery and she
gave me that same smile; as if to say, that she was glad that I finally found
it too. In the midst of this shift, I came to some important life questions and
one of them was about the detection of “meaning”.
So, I
started to ask myself, “What do I feel pulled to?”
As I moved through this transition from one
phase to another, I sat down one morning to do some of my writings and I came
across this idea of “passion”. I began
to wonder more about what “passion” looks like and how does it make me feel to
have it in a healthy fashion this time.
See, I had
fought for so long against the unhealthiness of my body that I had almost
forgot what it is that I am passionate about… other than survival.
It has not
been that long ago when I would wake up and the first thing on my mind would be
whether or not my body was going to be consumed with an infection. At that time, my day consisted of trying to
get back to a “normal” life while giving myself daily injections of antibiotics
through my “pic-line”? My passion during
that time was just to get healthy; so, that I could get back to a normal life…
a different life than before… but a normal life.
Now, I sit
here at my desk typing out a few words and not wondering what life will look
like but more about how will I act it out. This the life that I have chosen and I find meaning in it. I had never really expected it to look like
this when I was younger. The sounds of wind chimes in the background… the smell
of hot dark coffee blending with the warmth of the sunlight on a solitude
morning… me with my thoughts playing as the wind chimes in my soul.
What is
passion? In many ways it is our alarm
clock. It is our sunlight peeking
through the venetian blinds of our imagination.
It is the companion when the fears and the successes of life have faded
away to only come out again on “special” events. It pulls us into the direction that our sense
of being longs to go in. Passion is the
act of being who we truly are meant to be.
The quote above says much more than we may see at a first glance.
Passion is the act of the kiss. It is
the movement of the artist that glides his hands… or her voice… or their feet…
that reflect a heart of intimacy in displaying who they are within themselves.
And the kiss is not an act of function but of celebration. However, it is the love or affection that we
have for what we are passionate that sanctifies it… or in other words sets it
apart from all others. Sometimes we meet
some individuals with the kiss of greeting… a small sign of more than just
acknowledgement of handshake. With passion we kiss someone that we know much
more intimately. When we know a person with intimacy…someone that we have a
deep abiding, almost bubbling, affection for the kiss becomes much more than
just an act. It is a sign of what they
mean to us.
Passion is
much more than an act of writing a check to an organization. Passion is much more than saying that we
support a group of individuals. A deep affective passion moves us from our
slumber and pulls us to an intimate act of setting apart a space of our being
so that we can reflect a deeper better part of who we truly are in this
movement of time. It is the willingness to be almost consumed with the thought
how do I do this well and how does this give me a sense of meaning that soothes
my own soul.
We all have
a something or someone that we believe in and we believe in it so much that we
tell others from time to time. We all
have a sports team or a politician or a band or a movement that we claim as our
own. We wear the caps and t-shirts. We put the bumper stickers on our cars. We go
to rally events so that we can be in a community of supporters. However, do
they make us want to get out of bed so we can find a way to engage with
them? Passion will do that. Passion will
pull us not push us. We detect the
greater sense of passion and we cannot escape it gravitational yearning for us
to engage with it.
Rebecca West, an English writer, wrote these
words,
“It is the soul’s duty to be loyal to
its own desires. It must abandon itself to its master passion.”
We either wake up with emptiness in
our souls that we spend all day trying to fill
Or
We wake up with an immense passion that
we cannot wait to act out and share with all that we meet.
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