Passion: What Are You Living For?

As of late, the following statement has been said, texted to, sent to, or simply "found" me over again and again:

Find your passion and figure out how to get paid for it...

Passion.  I am an individual overflowing with passion, indulging in the taste of my passions.  I find joy in little things - joy in most things.  However, PASSION is different... Passion overcomes a person's being and there is almost a physical change when they speak with that passion.

"Passion is energy. Feel the power that comes from focusing on what excites you." - Oprah Winfrey

I want to experience MORE passion in my life... Sharing what I love brings out a side of me that makes me more fulfilled as a person.  There are a few places that I find passion in my life...

1. I find passion in teaching.  I find that when I am teaching someone else something new or further developing their minds/thought-process, I feel excited.  I feel that energy and want to keep going and going!  I love teaching and personal development.  I feel passionate when I HELP someone else... PEOPLE bring me a sense of passion and teaching allows me to tape into that passion to help others grow and develop.  Teaching THEATRE allows me to help others find passion within an arena I love and cherish... It's the biggest blessing that I'll be teaching full-time theatre next year.
2. I find passion in my Savior.  Above all, I know my Savior lives, and that He died for me because He loves me.  I know that I have a Heavenly Father who sent my Savior to this earth to live and die for me, then live again.  I know that through the Atonement of Jesus Christ, I can be the BEST version of myself and truly learn to live righteously.  I can truly be happy through living like Him and accepting His gift on my behalf... and that's beautiful.  What is there not to be passionate about in a man who loves me enough to DIE for me and take on all my imperfections, simply because He wants me to be ultimately happy?  I am passionate about Christ.
3.  I am passionate about music.  There is nothing I love to do more than singing... nothing.  I feel my happiest, healthiest, and most intelligent when singing and experiencing music.  I learn through song and from melodies... I teach through them as well.  I feel like everything I do in life is creating a personal soundtrack and I hear the melodies playing, feel the rhythms pumping, and see the pictures each lyric creates.  I live in song, and if you were inside my head you would probably think I was slightly crazy.  How many literally (and I'm not misusing the word here) think of parts in their day as actual music videos or think in song as response to others?  I do.  How many hear melodies and song in a walk outside, a car-ride home, or a typing keyboard late at night?  I do. Music makes me alive... music is true passion.  

"Nothing separates the generations more than music. By the time a child is eight or nine, he has developed a passion for his own music that is even stronger than his passions for procrastination and weird clothes."  - Bill Crosby

I don't believe I have been giving my all to my passions... Some of them - here and there.  However, I feel like over the past few years I've become wrapped up in what the world or society thinks I should become, or what feels safe and easy.  I'm happy... but I truly believe I am happier when giving my all to my PASSIONS.  Is anything really worth doing if there isn't passion within the action?

“Passion. It lies in all of us. Sleeping... waiting... and though unwanted, unbidden, it will stir... open its jaws and howl. It speaks to us... guides us. Passion rules us all. And we obey. What other choice do we have? Passion is the source of our finest moments. The joy of love... the clarity of hatred... the ecstasy of grief. It hurts sometimes more than we can bear. If we could live without passion, maybe we'd know some kind of peace. But we would be hollow. Empty rooms, shuttered and dank. Without passion, we'd be truly dead.” - Joss Whedon

Passion IS Life.  Life IS NOT Passion... but a FULFILLED and FULL life IS Passion. 

I'm ready to step into a life only filled with passion.  If you want to do the same, you're more than welcome to walk beside me.  

*muah*

Song of the Day:  I recently decided to start doing covers in an attempt to feel more confident in putting my voice out there again and just to sing more... I LOVE singing, in case you missed that, and so I'm going to make an effort each way to share that love and passion with others.  Thus, here is my first cover.  I sang Sara Bareilles's song, "Gravity."