I love the booming sounds, the explosive display of light, and the smoky smell of sulfur in the air that comes with a good fireworks show. But I quite like the communal aspect of it as well. I love how thousands of people gather together to stare up at the night sky and marvel at the breathtaking sights and sounds. They ooh and aah with one accord, and after the show is over, walk away with smiles on their faces and their spirits uplifted.
The same thing happens when a person lives their life with passion. There is a magnetic, ethereal quality about it that we can’t help but be captivated by.
These days, we often hear the familiar refrain to “follow our passion,” which usually means we should leave behind the things that bore us in order to chase the life of our dreams, filled with activities that bring us never-ending joy and fulfillment.
Not a bad goal, I suppose, but living with passion is different than following your passion. “Following” insinuates that what we’re seeking is outside our grasp. But whether you are currently living your dream, on your way to it, or not sure which direction it’s hiding, you still have the choice of doing it with passion. In other words, you may not be passionate about your job, but you can choose to be passionate in in doing it.
As Martin Luther King, Jr. suggested:
“If a man is called to be a street sweeper, he should sweep streets even as a Michaelangelo painted, or Beethoven composed music or Shakespeare wrote poetry. He should sweep streets so well that all the hosts of heaven and earth will pause to say, ‘Here lived a great street sweeper who did his job well.”
When you live your life with passion, it truly is a remarkable thing. We can’t help but be drawn into it, oohing and aahing, walking away with smiles on our faces and our spirits uplifted.
It’s quite a thing to behold.
Who is someone you’ve witnessed embodying that quote by Martin Luther King, Jr.?
I work with a nurse in an Adult Day Care and she is the best medicine for those people who come so thier care givers get a break. She is so jolly and happy to be with them they never feel a burden to be there as at home sometimes they do. She sings with them, plays cards with them if there is time and much more. She is their friend not just a nurse and I love her for her Godly example of serving others!
A nurse who IS medicine. What a concept! Sounds like she’s a real Adultitis-fighter!
She really is an Adultitis-fighter!
I have been passionate about every job I have had as an adult. This is how I have to live my life. I am an Animal Science instructor to 11th & 12th graders and in the beginning of the year, I tell them how much I love my job teaching them and that when they are old enough to make a decision as to what they want to do for a living, that they should strive to obtain a job that they love waking up and going to everyday.