Passion: If Not Now, When?

My second act and engaging the writer within

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I quit my primary work in 2024, and if retirement means anything at all for me, it means the opportunity to pursue and live my passion. It means a second act. For me, that act has been obvious all my life — to live the rapture of being alive through my writing; that is, to follow my curiosity and engage the creative imagination through writing. I have always wanted to do this, but felt constrained by financial limitations. I loved engaging my family, friends, community, and outdoor sports, especially sailing. I loved dancing and playing in the snow, and I loved gardening. I still do. But loving something isn’t exactly the same as passion. In fact, loving something can distract you from passion quite easily — I’d say it almost always does.

What Is Passion?

Any writing on passion needs to begin with the realization that the root word for passion in Latin is patior, which gives passio as the synonym, and passion as our current word. Patior means to suffer, as in the passion play of Jesus Christ. So while we today usually use the term as a synonym for intense feeling or even as one flavor of love, any use of the term carries this older meaning. Passion is suffering. And passion is intense feeling. To engage one’s passion is to suffer intense feeling — its…