Making Time for Our Passion and Purpose

I want there to be a word – something full of sound on my tongue – that captures this feeling that comes when we do what we love. A word like zeitgeist or salam/shalom, a word that carries more than its literal translation. Passion doesn’t work because of the erotic/romantic associations, and love, well, it’s just too ubiquitous even in its power. No, I want a better word for that moment that comes when I am engrossed in the space between my mind and language, or that second when she disappears into the chords beneath her fingers, or that instant when the engine roars perfectly back to life at the touch of his hands. I want a word for the place where we fall full-force into our passions.
'Bliss' photo (c) 2010, Tom Cavnar - license: http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/2.0/
One of the things I love most to do in the world is to hear someone talk about what makes their spirits soar. I watch for that moment when their eyes sparkle, and they almost forget I’m there. It’s like their souls shine on their faces, like they are fully alive.

But sadly, I don’t see that expression as often as I’d like, and I don’t feel it in my own life frequently enough. It seems we are bogged down in life, burdened by responsibilities and tasks so much that we cannot find this passion sometimes. Our state is tragic, I feel.

So for the next week or so, while I take some much needed time away to drive the roads of the Eastern U.S. and visit amazing friends in Canada, I have asked other people who live their passions to stop by the blog and tell us how they make time for these things. I think you’ll be most impressed and hopefully inspired by what they say. I have been.

I’ll be thinking of you from the road. I’ll be trying to capture the word that holds this feeling of bliss and purpose perfectly. If you have suggestions – in English or the other myriad languages I am sad to not know – please offer them. Maybe we can find a word together that will help us all find ourselves a little more often.

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