Living Passionately

                                                 
                                                 

"Living Passionately" ©  2011   ~ acrylic by Carol E. Fairbanks

                                          In the Spirit of Adventure

"A musician must make music, an artist must paint, a poet must write if he (or she) is to be at peace.  What a people can be, they must be."    Abraham Maslow

To live in a passionate way is to express deep emotion and boundless enthusiasm, according to The American Heritage Dictionary.  However, this strong, forceful feeling can be, but is not necessarily, directed toward a high ideal that appears beneficial or lofty.  But even when it's not, perhaps, in time, all acts of passion, either from positive or negative feelings, can turn out to offer good, even when there is chaos and violence. A painter can produce paintings that criticize or condemn the rulers in governmental power and reap the consequences of incarceration or worse. A writer can write about alternative lifestyles that challenge the values of a community and, as a result, be ostracized by everyone.  A number of creative people in our history have expressed truths that they feel passionate about and have incurred sadness or loss in their life as a result.

Yet that passion to express one's truth is stronger than the fear of abandonment or punishment.  Maslow was right in his thinking... people who feel passion must express it. And this is not only a select creative few that he was talking about.  Even though most people say, "I am not an artist....I am not creative at all!", they are speaking from a lie that they, with the help of our left-brain dominate culture, tell themselves.  Our culture fears creativity, because it is not easily controlled or measured.  The truth that arises from the creative process comes from a source deep within individuals....from the core of who they really are.  At that place, there is no debate...no argument.  That truth is the way it is, offering no alternatives.  It is the place of knowing, a place beyond doubts, a place where one arises from turbulent emotions to a realization of one's true place and mission in life. It is the point of certainty, where a person feels so much passion, that he (she) can only say, "yes" to it.

Living passionately is not always the easiest way to live, but it is definitely the most exciting and exhilarating.  When Helen Keller wrote, "Life is a daring adventure or nothing", she was talking about the risk one has to take to be creative in expressing one's passion. The truth demonstrated in that passion is not  necessarily valued by others at the time it is shared, but it does usually change them and, perhaps, all of society ultimately.  And it certainly changes the one who is passionate, developing some latent force within the one who creates that brings greater strength and contentment.

So, swim on, you passionate ones, through the "waters" of turbulent emotion and uncertainty, and leap from your perceived illusions of limitation to the dream within you that refuses to be quiet.  Live that adventure of who you are.... making a difference to the world....  and to you!