Passions: Revisited.

(Couldn't think of a good picture, so I thought I'd post one of a sunrise on the way to work a few weeks ago.)

I just got out of a meeting at work and for some reason I left in a funk. I thought, "What am I doing here? Why am I working in retirement? Do I even make a difference in the world?" It was right before my lunch so I thought, "I'll look at blogs, they'll cheer me up." That didn't do it... They all have Valentine's Day themed recipes on ways to treat your significant other. Not helpful. So, I decided to read old posts of my own blog. Strange, I know... But I came across a post below that I wrote on October 7, 2010, and it kind of snapped me out of my funk. Way to go, 22-year-old Abby! You were wise beyond your years...

The post was entitled: Passions.

I feel like the word "passion" has come up in a lot of the conversations I've had lately... but it's been in the negative. When referring to my new job at JP Morgan, many times I've said the lame statement of: "Well, it'll be a good job, but what can I say, I'm just not passionate about 401ks." I was just reading a friend's blog and she answered the question, "What are you passionate about?" and upon reading that I was completely convicted that I've been focusing on the negative rather than the positive. What am I passionate about? What gets me excited and motivated and high on life?

After much contemplation (ok, not that much, maybe 15 minutes), here is my list of things I am passionate about:

1. Encouragement. I think everyone deserves to hear the nice things we sometimes think in our heads but for some reason are too embarrassed to say out loud. If you like a person's sweater or think someone did a great job at work, why not tell them about it. I love to give compliments and I love to write thank you cards. I'm passionate about encouraging people.

2. Friendships. Solid friendships are pretty huge to me. Tonight I went for a drink with a friend and asked her how she was doing and she didn't waste any time with the lame, "I've been good, how are you?" She went straight into how her heart really is. I loved it! I love how real our friendship is. I'm passionate about friendships. Not only my own but that we all need them.

3. Music. I suppose this is a little more shallow than the things above, but I'm passionate about music. I'm passionate about singing and communicating a message through notes and words. And I'm passionate about instrumentals and communicating emotion through a major or minor key. I love it all...

4. Creativity. I'm passionate about thinking outside of the box. About creating beautiful things out of not so beautiful things. I kind of feel like creativity is a form of redemption, artistically improving a situation. I know... I just made that way deeper than it probably is, but why not...

5. Christianity. This is what I build my life around... or try to. (I fail, again and again....) It's where all of my passion begins.

The kicker is that while, no, I'm not passionate about 401ks, I can still incorporate all of the things I am passionate about in my new job (ok, well, maybe not music, but I will do that on the side...) It's these things that I will be focusing on... The end. :)