Tuesday, January 11, 2011

Passion and Delight

Why passion and delight?

Those two words carry great meaning for me.  Those concepts are of great significance and importance.

First there was delight.

Somewhere along the way, I realized that delight is my word.  When it finally sunk in was reading Eat, Pray, Love where she talks about different cities having words and then each person having a word, and these words sort of define or sum up the person or city or whatever.  Your word is at your core, in a sense.

Delight is my word, and more than that, it is my purpose.

For my feng shui training long ago, I had to come up with my life's purpose.  In true Emerald style, mine was long and complex.  But it felt like the right thing at the time.

But then later I did some important work with a group of women where we were working on identifying our stories, letting go of what we didn't want, and creating new stories for ourselves.  It was during this work that a new purpose came to me:

I [verb] delight.

The verb can be lots of different things.

I facilitate delight.
I inspire delight.
I share delight.
I spread delight.
I scatter delight.
I cultivate delight.
I find delight.
I give delight.
I embody delight.
I am delight.


Later came the passion epiphany.

I was pondering what is most important to me in the way I live my life, and what I'd want to be known for.

The word passion emerged.

This is the large concept of being passionate.  I strongly value passion for one's work or art or cause or family.  I greatly admire passionate people, those who live passionately.  I have a sense that someone who is living passionately is living a larger life.

For a long time now I feel I've been suppressing a lot of my true passionate nature, because it often makes me feel vulnerable to share it.  I watered it down, calling myself enthusiastic, because that sounds safer and less intense.  But now I understand it's like I've been sanding off the vibrant edge of life.

So now I strive to live both of these words in every moment, or really, to get out of my own way and let them emerge.

I have titled this blog Passion & Delight as a reminder to myself of what matters to me in my heart and soul.

1 comment:

Good Grief said...

oh boy can i relate to the reluctance to call it what it is...seems a bit over the top if you will. I think we need to step away from that reluctance and just say it out loud: Passion and Delight! Passion is power to really live.