On Sunday, Neil and I attended the service at the Westside Centre for Spiritual Living.   http://www.westside-csl.org/  As ususal, I found great value in many of the things that Reverend Toni Hegge shared that day.  There was one phrase he offered that really stood out for me, and that has come back to me a few times in the last two days.  It was “The meaning of life is to live it!” 

Wow.  A simple but profound statement.  It made me think about the amount of life I have wasted (and by that I mean, how time I have let pass being lost in thought about what I should be doing, instead of just enjoying the moment I was in).  It gave a whole new depth to Eckhart Tolle’s “The Power of Now”.  Life really is what is happening now. 

I have to laugh when I think about how much of my life I’ve spent fretting about what my purpose is and what I should be doing.  It seems so simple.  If I just filled my life with what I love to do, with the people I love to be with, with thoughts of gratitude and appreciation, I would find so much more joy.   If I just chose to live life, instead of fret about how to live it, I would find greater inner peace.

I’m so pleased to realize I’m really on my way.  It’s been a journey of several years to get here, but I am in the present moment, enjoying the life I am living on a far more regular basis than I ever used to.  I’m far from perfect, and have much more to learn, yet I celebrate the success I have had in becoming more aware, more conscious.

It’s all about choice.  Today I’m going to choose my life with passion and appreciation for this moment.  Maybe you’d you’d like to join me and make the same choice for yourself today?

I awoke feeling absolutely bagged this morning… went to bed late and was woken up several times during the night by the gale-force winds battering our home. I really just wanted to stay in bed in this morning and nearly talked myself into it, but I had an errand I had to run by a certain period of time.   So, I got up, did my morning ritual (even though I wasn’t really feeling very enthusiastic about it – I thank my teachers for the lessons about the value of discipline – staying with the ‘practises’ of spirituality despite our preferences!), showered, ate a little yogurt and headed out on my errand. When I got back home, I wanted to crawl back into bed, but thought “I’ll just make sure I first take 3 actions that will support my business (which in turn, supports my passions) before I go to bed, because I have to keep moving forward.”

Several phone calls later, and a little time out for a couple of boiled eggs and a spinach salad for lunch, I decided to grant myself that ‘time out’ back in bed. The phone rang within 15 minutes of crawling between the sheets and even though I’d told myself I should ignore the phone and just rest, something told me to pick up the call. So I did. It was a call from a colleague who happened to have been staffing the event that Neil and I were presenting The Passion Test at on Monday night. As she told me how awesome our presentation was (and I have to give credit where credit is due – it was Neil’s baby! I only offered about 10 or 15 minutes of input at the end) and she shared how amazed she is by our energies (she said we are by far the most enthusiastic, really living with passion, easy-to-work with team she’s ever met, “Honestly!”  she said.  “You guys really do live it and it’s so great!”). She was so genuine in her appreciation of what we bring to the world.

I was impressed that I was able to graciously receive and acknowledge it all. Her comments were wonderfully re-affirming that we are living on purpose, and just what I needed to hear on a ‘I’m feeling yucky’ day.  By the time I hung up the phone, I felt driven to make one more phone call – a call that I’d been thinking about for a number of weeks that could be a step taken to bring me closer to living one of my top five passions – to live/work/play in Mother Nature on a regular basis. I thought about making the call, then thought “oh, you can do it later!” But then I thought about the Secret to Living Life with Passion – always choose in favour of your passions! I got up and made the phone call.

It was a success! I now have a coffee date with the camp manager for the Kids Cancer Care Foundation of Alberta. It’s just going to be a casual conversation – a chance to explore possibilities and opportunities – yet it’s a chance to explore ways that I might be able to bring more of my passions into my life in a bigger way.  

I am so grateful! That inner drive caused me to take action, despite that nagging sense of tiredness.

This is what living with passion is all about. I give thanks for this blessed life I live and for this love of life we call Passion for Living.

What inner passions are  or could be driving you, if you listened to them?

Gratefully, my dear friend, Rosalie, whom I have known and loved for over 28 years (oh, goodness! That makes me think about how long I have lived!) wrote to me about my log, giving me the reminder I needed to get back on-line, sharing my thoughts with the world.

It’s funny how an out-ot-town trip (to facilitate at what turned out to be an absolutely phenomenal Spiritual Warrior weekend retreat) got me out of the daily habit of writing and the every day stuff of life kept me from getting back to it. I honestly just forgot all about the blog for about a week – then procrastination set in. That little voice in my head was telling me all sorts of stories, like “You don’t have time to write” and “you don’t have anything worthwhile to say, so don’t bother today” and “You just don’t feel like it” and “You should write…”   darn little voice knows very well that I don’t respond well to ’should’ any more.  The minute I hear ’should’ I say “no way!  I’m not doing anything because I should.  I was trapped into doing things out of obligation for over 40 years and I’m not doing it any more!”

I bought into all the stories. Rosalie’s reminder that there are people who read the blog and get value from it brought me back to that place of saying, “Thank you for sharing, little voice, but I want to write and I will, no matter what you tell me!”

So, here I am.  It’s a short note, because I was kind to myself this morning and let myself lay in bed for quite awhile.  I like this new-found place of giving myself permission to be kind to myself. This new-found compassion for me is making life much more enjoyable.  I lay in bed and did some ‘drifiting’, letting my mind travel wherever it wanted to, without judgement.  Then I did some re-connective healing for myself.  It was nearly 10:00 am before I got up to do the ”sun Salutation” (yoga), then eat a healthy breakfast.  By the time I finished checking emails, I find myself sitting here and it’s already 11:00 am!  I do have things that I’d like to accomplish for today, before I head out to teach Nia, so I’d best be moving on.  

But I’ll be back to talk you soon!  (I’m smart enough to know that I’m not yet ready to hold myself accountable for writing daily, so I won’t say I’ll be back tomorrow. )  But I might be!

Have a Marvelous Monday!