The Million Dollar Question

Passion, I asked myself... hmmmm, so what is that anyway?


A quick Google search or... imagine this - an actual flip through the pages of a REAL paper dictionary, GASP! will get you a variety of definitions for this tasty word.

Definitions according to Dictionary.com are as follows:

pas·sion

 /ˈpæʃən/ Show Spelled[pash-uhn] Show IPA

–noun

1.

any powerful or compelling emotion or feeling, as love or hate.

2.

strong amorous feeling or desire; love; ardor.

3.

strong sexual desire; lust.

4.

an instance or experience of strong love or sexual desire.

5.

a person toward whom one feels strong love or sexual desire.

6.

a strong or extravagant fondness, enthusiasm, or desire for anything: a passion for music.

7.

the object of such a fondness or desire: Accuracy became a passion with him.

8.

an outburst of strong emotion or feeling: He suddenly broke into a passion of bitter words.

9.

violent anger.

10.

the state of being acted upon or affected by something external, especially something alien to one's nature or one's customary behavior ( contrasted with action).

11.

( often initial capital letter ) Theology .

a.

the sufferings of Christ on the cross or His sufferings subsequent to the Last Supper.

b.

the narrative of Christ's sufferings as recorded in the Gospels.

12.

Archaic . the sufferings of a martyr.

Now I'm sure if I sat down and analyzed it I could figure out how each of these definitions apply to me and I bet you could too.

You all know the feeling, and if you don't please let's talk cause my goodness are you missing out! I have yet to meet a person who isn't passionate about SOMETHING. I wonder what that something is for you? For me it often exhibits as me actually getting flushed. We're talking, turn a bright shade of red when I get going on something I'm really passionate about! You can just imagine what kinds of situations that has put me in :-)

Which leads me to my list. It's often changing and always growing. See that's the cool thing about life in my opinion. It's never stagnant. It's ever changing and so your list of passions can change and grow as you do the same. It is a reflection of who we are at any given moment.

So at the moment, here is a list of my current passions, in no particular order, just as they come to me, which as I said, continues to grow daily. 

THE GREAT BIG LIST OF PASSIONS

- Life

- Learning 
- Immersion

- Personal growth and development (this could and probably will have a whole page of its own)

- Discovering and living as the most authentic version of myself and empowering others to do the same

- Family - I have a pretty fantastic one that I am very proud to be part of
- Conscious Parenting 
- Parent Empowerment & Education
- Children
- Authentic Relationships

- Community

- Travel

- Connecting and sharing in positive ways with other human beings

- Cultivating authentic relationships

- Gratitude

- Diversity

- Communicating through spoken and written word

- Language 

- Dance/Movement

- Expressive Meditation

- Finding the silver lining, exploring all angles, finding the lesson in any situation

- Finding the calm inside the storm

- Creative expression of all kinds

- Play dough - yes play dough :-)

- Oh, and let me not forget... QUOTES! You'll be seeing a lot of them.

At the end of the day I guess you could say that what I am most passionate about is BEing. BEing true to yourself and true to those around you. To be sure this is a journey. One well worth taking. On that note, I leave you with a somewhat cliche, yet nevertheless very meaningful quote from one of our world's most influential leaders: 

“Be the change you want to see in the world.” Gandhi

So who are you? What are you passionate about? Who do you want to be? Please post a comment and share where you're at in this moment.

What's with the name?

Passionista? What the heck is that?!

Here's the story as I can best explain it...


Once upon a time I embarked on this thing called life. Had experiences as a kid, had experiences as a teen, had experiences as young adult etc. etc. All the while wondering... WHY AM I HERE? As I'm sure many of you have, I've had a series of rises and falls where I thought I had figured out what I was "meant to" be doing with my life. Yet something has always been missing. There's always this nagging feeling in the pit of my stomach with every great accomplishment that "Ya, that was awesome, but NOOOOT quite what I'm looking for". Next!


Round about 2008 I really started exploring this feeling of something "missing" a lot deeper. I READ a lot! I TRIED a lot! And along my journey much of what I came across asked "What is your passion?" or "What are you passionate about?". So I asked myself, what in the world am I actually passionate about? The answer is... QUITE A BIT. I bet the same is true for you if you really let yourself sink into it.

You see, when I first started exploring this question of my passions I couldn't really come up with a single thing. Enter.... my most recent vocation as an early childhood professional and parent educator - translation: one who plays playdough with preschoolers, learns a lot from hanging out on the floor with babies and shares insights with other parents about how to navigate the murky waters of the greatest and most challenging job on Earth. Hands down one of the most rewarding ways of spending my time & energy so far! So, how does this relate?

Well, the other day it hit me as I was pondering yet again the idea of what it means to be me.

Me = being passionate. What?! It was like I had been hit on the head with some very large object (or more likely some kind of toy!)

Often after parenting workshops and classes feedback from participants would be that I was "passionate". In fact, many friends of mine over the years have described me or my actions as such.

When I really sat down and thought about it, the best days for me are the ones in which I recognize that I have felt passionate about what I was doing that day and also that I was called silly AT LEAST ONCE! More on this later...

Therefore, in choosing a name for my blog (and believe me, I've procrastinated on this A LONG time) I decided that the best way to describe the contribution I'd love to add to the world is through passion. And thus, The Passionista Blog is born!

I'm excited about embarking on this journey and double extra excited to share it with you.

May your day be filled with laughter & light no matter who you are, no matter what you're doing, no matter where you are on this amazing planet, no matter when you happen to read this, no matter why you're reading it and no matter how you came across it.

Cheers!

Cassandra

Welcome

Welcome to my blog!

Essentially, this is a space for ME to BE ME. It is also a space meant to encourage YOU to BE YOU. After all, as human beings, essentially that's what we are. A collection of spiritual beings exploring the human experience of being ourselves, as individuals and as a collective.

I have created this place as an opportunity for me to share what I am passionate about and hopefully to serve as an inspiration to others to express and live their passions.

In love & light,

Cassandra