Do you have a passion? Is it writing, as it is for me? Is it music? Is it art? Whatever it is, I hope you give it your time and best efforts, for we all need passions. We need those things that stir our senses, that make our fingers itch to get to them.
When I was a young mother, I had little spare time and even less spare energy. Still, my husband encouraged me to try new things, to develop my talents. I demurred, saying that the children needed my attention, that the house needed cleaning, that we had no extra money for me to do frivolous things. (True, true, and really, really true.)
I tried some things: ceramics, watercolors, sewing, etc. I showed absolutely no talent for any of them. I wasn't surprised. I've always been a klutz.
And then I wrote a short story and sent it to a magazine before I could talk myself out of it. To my surprise and delight, it was accepted. Imagine. Someone wanted to pay me for my words. What a heady sensation. That sensation was diluted somewhat when my next twenty efforts were rejected, but I was hooked and kept writing. Thirty years later, I'm still writing (and still getting rejections). But my passion for the act of painting with words persists.
That's how you know if something is a real passion--if it won't go away.
Go. Find that passion, that thing that makes you excited about life, that thing that enriches you and those around you.
This I know for sure: the passion to create exists in all of us. It is our job to find it.
I've found several. That's a problem, since I'm still in the little kids, no time, less energy phase!
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