Passion

I can’t explain it.  When I try I quickly find I lack the capacity to do so.  Any attempt seems woefully inadequate and futile, much like trying to describe a color to a person who has never had the gift of sight.  To some, no explanation is necessary.  There are those who are equally afflicted.  There are some who understand, who just get it.

To those poor souls who don’t understand, who have never embraced passion, nothing I can say or do can convey my feelings.  That’s the funny thing about passion - those who share it embrace it and encourage it in others, those who don’t mistakenly look at it  as obsession or insanity.  Those who don’t understand are the naysayers.  They are the ones who stand safely on the sidelines of life and criticize those audacious few who dare to follow their dreams.  To listen to them, to take their negativity to heart, is folly.  It robs the passionate ones of their life force.  It sows seeds of self doubt.  The world is full of these naysayers.  They are out there lurking, waiting to pounce, to burst the bubble of optimism.  They are there hoping to latch on and drain you of your spirit with words of doubt and limitation.  Like an emotional vampire, they feed on the life force of others. They are there to rob us of our passion so that we fit into their limited view of the world.

I guess when it comes down to it, true passion shares a great deal with obsession and insanity.  Your passion drives you.  It occupies your thoughts, your dreams, and your hopes.  It dominates you and is always there whispering in your ear, urging you ever forward.

The difference between passion and obsession is that passion is a thing of beauty and life and endless potential.  Passion has pushed human kind to the top of the world, across oceans, across continents, and into space.  Passion is love, and love allows you to appreciate the beauty of life.  Passion has achieved and will achieve things once thought impossible. 

Embrace your passion, whatever it is.  Ignore the naysayers.  They are meek and timid souls.  Every single one of the greatest experiences in my life was criticized by those around me as being foolish, rash, impulsive, or obsessive.  They were all wrong.  They will continue to be wrong.  I will follow my passion wherever it leads me.  Naysayers be damned.

I run because it is my passion.  I run because it brings me joy and tears, incredible highs, and earth shaking lows.  I run because it makes me feel alive and forces me to embrace all aspects of life, the amazing and the humbling.  I run because it forces me out of my comfort zone. After all, that’s where all the good stuff happens.  

Happy trails.