Live Passionately

Passion changes everything.

I admire those people who have the self-control to work hard no matter what they are doing; I do not have this self-control.  If I am involved in a task yet lack passion for it, I find myself making any little excuse to do something else.  However...

Passion changes everything.

There are times when nothing else matters except what I am working on, and these are the times I know that I am passionate about what I am doing.  So often, though, I find myself doing the same old thing, and it gets tiring after a while.

Passion changes everything.

I love spending time with people.  There are very few activities that I will not interrupt in order to spend time with someone I care about.  In the middle of a movie?  No worries.  Planned on going to dinner alone?  I wouldn't give it a second thought, join me!

Passion changes everything.

I firmly believe that when you are passionate about the people that you care about, they can tell, whether it's in a heartfelt smile, a well-timed joke or a much needed hug.  I feel like if I am to be passionate about one thing, it should be the relationships that I treasure.

Passion changes everything.

Love is a way that we can show others that we care, and I am bad about not showing that love when people are far away.  I have friends who teach overseas, and, unfortunately, I rarely make the time to speak to them. But when we met up at a friend's wedding last year, it was as though no time had passed.

Passion changes everything.

I encourage you to find the experience(s) in your life for which you would gladly trade all the rest.  These are the things you are passionate about, be it your family, a good meal, your career, a good movie, your friends, a good book... The list goes on.  The things that we are passionate about are the things we remember, and the things that shape our lives.   Love passionately.  Work passionately.  Live passionately!

Passion changes everything.

The People You Meet

After a while, you begin to realize that the people you interact with really do begin to shape the way you live your life. It's in the small things, like phrases or looks that you pick up. But it is in the big things, too, in the way you spend your evenings, think about society or even how you find love. Everyone that we have any real contact with either reaffirms or questions our direction.

I wonder how this all works out. I mean, are we naturally drawn to those who mostly reaffirm our direction so that we must do less altering to our life? Is there some subconscious motivator that drives our direction towards that of someone we admire? What if, in a single evening, you meet someone who changes the way you have thought about everything? Should you file those emotions away to ponder over time or should you alter course now, not knowing how your life will change?

Spring?

A new semester has begun, and with it comes a time for renewal, for progress, for love and life. A great friend got married last weekend, and I was able to spend some time with other college friends while in Atlanta for the ceremony. time has come for another Civic Theatre production, and I am looking forward to getting in the theatre again. I just finished up a five-week program with middle schoolers where we explored the role of engineering in all aspects of food: growing and production, packaging, nutrition, waste processing, even genetics. Made me want to be in a classroom even more and also gave me a chance to meet some wonderful people I wouldn't have otherwise gotten to know.

This afternoon, as the dirty, salty snow melt runs across the Indiana asphalt, I hark back to hiking on hot Carolina summer days and watching the cool, clear water flow from its mountain source and shimmy ever so delicately over the rocks' surface. I would give anything to spend a barefoot hour there: my feet in the water, lying on the cool rock, sun beating down from its heavenly perch with such intensity as to make me believe it wishes it could join me on this perfect afternoon.

It intrigues me how such diverse experiences, those of Indiana snow melt and a Carolina mountain stream, can be so connected to one another. I have always been drawn to water, not so much its presence but more its movement. I think this comes in large part from spending time with my paternal grandfather, a man who has shown me and taught me more about the outdoors than almost anyone else. He now owns about 50 acres in the middle of South Carolina and has moved the path of his creek several times now. I think he sees the flowing water as a thing to treasure; a thing not unlike life. So often we think that when our time comes to leave this world things stop, but they don't. And so they don't stop for us, either, really. I think my grandfather sees in the water's coursings our own journeys, never ceasing, overcoming dams and falls.

Almost There

In watching Disney's new Princess and the Frog, the song "Almost There" is quite catchy. In it, the young lady talks about how she has worked hard her whole life saving for her dream - a restaurant in New Orleans. It makes me realize that I have no real goal to speak of.

Oh, I dream, don't get me wrong. I dream of a corner bakery with a big steel urn of fresh coffee and the scent of warm cookies coming out of the kitchen. I dream of being in front of a classroom full of interested faces, chalk dust under my fingernails. I dream of waking up each morning next to a wife who loves me for the crazy person I am. I dream of kitchen that is always full of friends and family, a place where we all can talk and dice tomatoes and flip pancakes and share in one another's company. I dream of walking down the streets of Paris, stopping to sit at a sidewalk cafe, just listening to the sounds of the people and the traffic.

The thing of it is, I have never had anything that at which I had to work. I'll be totally honest. Classes were never a problem, I have always been good at making friends, I have had some of the best jobs literally fall into place. In the bigger picture, I have never had to plan for anything, to work towards anything, to worry about something not happening. I was never concerned about getting into college or graduate school, about finishing a class or making new friends when I moved. I suppose part of that is because I am just not a worrier, but another part of it is that I have never had reason to worry.

I am so blessed by that. I don't mean to sound like I am complaining or depressed. I realize that I am blessed to live the life that I do, blessed to have people who care about me and friends and family who love me. I am blessed that I don't have to worry about food on the table or shoes on my feet.

But I have no "loose change dream". In Princess and the Frog, the young girl has a drawer full of coins, money that she's saved for her dream. I realize that not every dream requires you to save money, but it's the same principle whether it's money (for a bakery) or knowledge (for the classroom) or friends (for everything!).

I am intrigued tonight that - even when I have been so richly blessed, so overwhelmingly taken care of by parents and Father alike - even now I yearn to have to work for something to call my own.

Theatre

Tonight was the first time in a long time (too long, perhaps) that I was in a control booth at the back of a theatre. I did lighting and sound all through high school and college and have so many good memories of it. I am looking forward to working at the Civic Theatre. I have never done community theatre before, and I expect it to be a little more professional than school. Although we were fairly serious about it at Mann, Erskine's theatre program left much to be desired. I had better resources in high school than in college. I have seen some productions that they have done at Civic, and I am looking forward to being a part of it.

The girl that I am doing lights with for this show is the sister of a friend of mine from Erskine, A.M. What a small world. It intrigues me how God places people in our lives, the connections that we make and that impact our lives. Everyone is in our lives for a reason.

The Venn Diagram of Life

Why is it that, in that Venn Diagram of life, the circles of "People you love" and "Friends" only touch the tiniest of bits? Why is it that when relationships end, people have a tendency to become farther apart than they were initially? In the relationship, the other person is entrusted with our innermost thoughts and dreams, our desires and fears, the best and worst of who we are. I find it intriguing that when the romance from a relationship is lost, these ties are oftentimes also severed.

While dating isn't Biblical, it is today's society's version of finding a mate. When once we realize that our partner is not suitable for marriage, we simply move on to another partner. Only it isn't always simple. Many people I know, myself included, have said, "I'd like it if we stayed friends." Why is this such a widely-desired conclusion, but one so rarely achieved?

It intrigues me that when we sever romantic ties, we instinctively sever emotional ties as well. We do not settle on a friend stage, we sever them. Are we, as human beings, afraid that someone who is not romantically attached to us will run amok with our emotional baggage? Is it easier to simply give up on a relationship than to remain friends, even though that's what so many people claim to want? I say we work a little harder and let's try to make the circles overlap a bit more.

Yes, this is an Intriguing World

With each passing day, it becomes more apparent to me that there is so much in this Intriguing World that I do not know. And, in large part, I am at peace with that. I will never be able to fully comprehend string theory or the inner workings of the human mind.

In today's society, unfortunately, more importance is placed on knowledge than on wisdom. In saying this, I do not claim to be wise, but, rather, merely intend to state that I seek not to know, but to understand. Not to know what string theory is, but to understand the impetus behind the desire to have a theory at all.

To be truthful, the vast majority of things that I find intriguing in this Intriguing World are what most people would consider to be smaller tidbits, to be things of lesser importance. Like, why do the servers at Chick-fil-A always say, "My pleasure" instead of "You're welcome"? What's the idea behind this whole QWERTY keyboard layout? Why is the hot water knob on the left side of the sink? To me, these are not of any less importance. They may, perhaps, have easier answers, but that does not mean that the question is less meaningful.

I hope that this is a place where I can share some of this Intriguing World with you. I look forward to your input and also would love to discover what you find intriguing.