Have you ever lost your passion to practicality?

Have you ever left your love for life?

As children, we are born with innate passion and drives. At eight years old, I discovered a love of transporting myself through fiction and was delighted to find I could create my own beginnings–my own endings–on paper.

Before long, I was passionate about the power of the pen.

At eleven, with the help of Microsoft, I became the woman I wanted to be, fell in love with tall, dark, and handsome, withstood torture for what I believed in, and became a spy that witnessed the scenes of prisons, shady characters, and dark alleys. I survived a wagon train exodus, escaped as a plantation slave, and shyly had my first kiss.

Through high school and college, I toggled between journaling my difficult moments and advice to my future-self as a parent of teenagers, to improving my skill through in-depth essays, autobiography, and fictional assignments. My love of writing became deeper and richer.

Then, I became busy.

Work, entertainment, new hobbies, relationships, coaching, school courses, more work . . . I didn’t have time.

Today I taught my first private English Class of the fall semester. As students slouched over their papers, brows furrowed and pencils scratching mindfully, I smiled as my own pen began to glide over my notebook. For the first time in months, my mind began to swim as I once again slid into a world of magic . . . a world where I could resolve conflict and drama.

Smiling and wide-eyed, my class listened as I read my brief yet thick description, and I discovered that I not only inspired them, I had inspired myself.

Writing is my gift. It is a passion that brings me joy and freedom, yet I denied myself that pleasure because I was busy.

I took away something that gave me life in pursuit of life.

Isn’t that ironic? In the business of searching for love, and joy, and happiness, we often leave behind the very things that bring us those moments of ecstasy.

I don’t know what your love is . . . but don’t forget. 

Is it a hobby? Do you no longer have time to pause and create?
Make time. We only have one life to live.

Is it a relationship? Are you no longer investing in the person you love because you’re in pursuit of something greater?
Let them know you care. Realize what you’re losing before it’s too late.

Is it a dream? Do you put off your goals for “someday?”
Do it. We only have so much time.

Just as God delights in us, his creation, he has given you and I beauty to delight in as well—-things to do, be, or have, that make us light up with pleasure.

Don’t leave passion for the old, the stale, the practical. Enjoy what makes you you . . . the unique individual with unique habits and talents.

God created us to live life to the fullest.

Don’t miss out because you were too busy.

Don’t miss out on what makes life brilliantly colorful.

Don’t leave your love.