We hear a lot these days about “passion.” Everywhere we look, it
seems like someone is telling us to “find our passion,” to
“follow our passion,” to “live passionately.” In the abstract,
it sounds like wonderful advice, but certainly there are not few
among us who are thinking, “Where am I even supposed to look?”
or even: “I don’t think I have a great passion!”
But what if it isn’t so hard! What if deep down we already know
where to find it – because it’s a part of us?
What if there is a way to go about this that makes sense, one
that you can do?
In fact, “finding your passion” means connecting with what is
deepest inside. It begins with finding yourself. It’s
part of what I like to call The Marigold Theory. The idea is
simple: When you drop a marigold seed into the soil, it is
genetically coded to grow into a marigold. If you try to somehow
coax it into becoming a Hollyhock, it will disappoint you and
itself, and it may even die.
Likewise, we are each born with a unique set of potentials. How
sad if the Poppies among us spend their lives trying to be
Zinnias! Our task is to get back to that original seed and to
create an environment where its potential can be realized, an
environment where it can bloom.
Each of us has little sparks of energy that appear here and
there throughout the day. Something that happens, an idea, or a
thought kindles a reaction in us. We have a burst of energy
around it. That energy comes directly from our core and inspires
us into action. And – you guessed it! –- action inspired from
within is passion. Pay attention and follow that energy!
The opportunities are all around us. Sometimes they’re hiding in
plain sight! Your passion is in that special charge that you
feel when you’re doing something that you really love. It’s
there in the way that there are some things that you always have
energy for no matter how exhausted you are. It’s that natural
high that you just sometimes get.
Those chances to pursue our own energy occur when we least
expect them. One spring afternoon, while wandering with a friend
through the shops of the historic town of Lebanon, Ohio, I fell
in love with a miniature glass conservatory in the window of a
beautiful little garden store. Enchanted with the possibilities
from the moment I saw it, I knew I had to learn to build my own.
It was a tantalizing thought that kept coming back. As so often
happens when we aren’t afraid to follow our energy, the
opportunity to learn presented itself unexpectedly a few months
later. When our attention is suddenly captured by a new idea or
activity or object, there’s usually more to it than we initially
realize. By following that energy and allowing it to perc, that
unconscious element has an opportunity to unfold. Loose ends gel
into a form that we may not understand immediately. For me,
designing these miniature conservatories had many meanings. Far
from being unfriendly spaces that exposed and made the
inhabitants vulnerable as the old expression about “people in
glass houses” suggests, each of these tiny greenhouses is a
protective space, a life-affirming and nurturing environment
supporting the plants within as they reach for the sky. Each
fresh sheet of glass is a new opportunity with no limits, and it
became evident that the process of creating fresh designs was a
metaphor for developing a new and larger vision for my life.
Many things have followed from that moment in Lebanon when I
allowed myself to be guided by my energy.
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Copyright © Fran Hendrick, 2005. All Rights Reserved.
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