Journey XIV Week 12
Spring into Passion Redux

Swimming at the J with Sha. Last week at the JCAA pool Sha cheerfully coached with blue skies and sunshine overhead. Every time I see her she has the same wonderful smile on her face which radiates warmth and joy. Sha is passionate to share her love of swimming to all Monarchs. Swimming IS a mini spa experience!

“Fill your life with as many moments and experiences of joy and passion as you humanly can. Start with one experience and build on it.” — Marcia Wieder

Action: Identify at least one passion and be proud of it! Let your passion shine and radiate so that you can be a source of strength and encouragement for your family, friends, community, and even the world.

OK, I’ll admit it. When writing the weekly journal entries my intent is to not only occasionally make you laugh but to inspire you, make you think, and stir up your emotions. I write the journals and pose the actions of the week so that they may make you feel slightly uncomfortable, strike a nerve, and challenge your mind and spirit. Working out our mind and spirit is just like working out our body. If we don’t challenge them with regular discomfort then they become stagnant. That’s when growth, change and new experiences cease and life passes us by.

With last week’s journal, I was hoping to create discomfort and self-reflection, as I believe that we all need passion in our life. Being passionate about something isn’t just about us. Rather, it’s about family, community and the world. It’s my belief that we are created to live purposeful and passionate lives and to be proud of our passions so we can share them with others. When we experience passion in our life our joy increases exponentially. The joy spills over into our children, marriages, relationships, jobs, and the people we meet. It affects the kind of people and energy we attract into our lives. Simply stated: light attracts light!

Knowing last week that the “passion question” might be a tricky one to answer and share, I asked everyone in last Tuesday’s class “What are you passionate about?” Mother, Monarch and professional Barbara Laing—whom I call “B”—had an epiphany and below is her hysterical, honest, insightful and passionate reflection:

It was a beautiful spring morning last week and instead of burrowing under my seven (excessive, I know) pillows and turning on a rerun of Top Chef at 7:30 a.m., I had not only made it out of bed, I was dressed in workout clothes and loading my udderball into the car. No munching on my own personal Breakfast of Champions first — two cold slices of pizza that were beckoning me from the fridge — I was a barely awake, sort of insane-looking (BED-HEAD!) one-woman juggernaut headed to iGnite at Pease Park.

As we were cooling down towards the end of class I experienced several things simultaneously; a feeling of exhilaration that I had tackled the new bosu ball without breaking an ankle, injuring a friend or saying a bad word; satisfaction that I had actually participated (somewhat) in the Indian foot race around the park…this particular activity is my Achilles Heel at iGnite – I’m not gonna lie – it truly tests me on so many levels; and gratitude because Neissa was not crushed or buried alive in the deep sand under my full body weight when she attempted to heave me up, five times, over the chin-up bar on the playground.

So anyway, as we were gathering our equipment to leave Neissa posed a question to each of us: “What is your passion? What do you feel truly passionate about?” Silence. A lot of staring at the ground. Quizzical looks. She turned to me and asked. “What’s your passion, B?” “You’re a photographer, right?” I was busying myself rolling up my yoga mat and for some reason I was suddenly, uncharacteristically speechless. “Well,” I stammered. “I used to do that but I don’t really do it anymore…. I kind of shoot for friends, maybe, but no, I’m not really very good at it…” my voice trailed off.

I headed to my car and stopped halfway. This wasn’t right. What just happened? Why couldn’t I answer what I was passionate about? It isn’t that I am collectively devoid of any passion in my life—that there was none there. Quite the contrary. It was that I was not able to admit, to the group or even to myself, that what I cared about, or loved to do, or did for others was valuable.

I loaded my equipment into my car and I thought of something else: what if my daughter, a twenty-year-old college student, had been with us in class today? What would she have thought if she had listened to this exchange? To hear her mother say of an almost twenty-year career in photojournalism: “I’m not really very good at it…” How could I expect her to value her own passion for something, her contribution, if I was standing in front of friends and saying my own passion for photography was unimportant, or I was no good at it?

I headed home, showered, dressed and went on with my day. But what I took away from that class last week (besides some really sore legs, thanks to the Bosu Battle) was this:

We are amazing women and we are passionate about what matters to us. While we don’t have to share every intimate thought or personal accomplishment with each other, we need to at least be able to share it with ourselves. Because if we can acknowledge to ourselves that we can be proud of what we value, what we’re passionate about, we have taken the first step in sharing that gift with other people. And sharing, something we all worked so hard to teach our daughters and sons in their early years, is important, especially when you’re an iGnite Monarch.

— Barbara Laing

BRAVO “B”!! I couldn’t have written it more perfectly.

Monarchs, I end our journal and pose this final point. Your passion is uniquely yours which is why it’s so special. Do not be timid, rather let your passion shine and radiate so that you can be a source of strength and encouragement for your family, friends, community and even the world. Whether your passion is philanthropy, a profession, a hobby, raising your children, travel, teaching, leading Bible studies, supporting your husband, planting a garden, reading books, art, or just celebrating the fact that your bags fly free on Southwest Airlines, I encourage you to wear it, own it, love it, live it and be proud of it. It’s a BIG deal because it’s yours! Watch, enjoy and maybe even join them in the passion dance!!

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