"...What we don't realize is that passion is the muse of authenticity. It's the primordial, pulsating energy that infuses all of life, the numinous presence made known with every beat of our hearts. Passion does not reveal herself only in clandestine, romantic, bodice-ripping cliches. Passion's nature is also cloaked in the deep, subtle, quiet, and committed: nursing a baby, planting a rose garder, preparing a special meal, caring for a loved one who is ill, remembering a friend's birthday, persevering in a dream. Every day offers us another opportunity to live passionate lives rather than passive ones, if we will bear witness to passion's immutable presence in the prosaic. If we will stop denying ourselves pleasure. If, as James Joyce's heroine Molly Bloom whispered, we can only learn to say '... and yes I said yes I will Yes.'Passion is holy- a profound Mystery that transcends and transforms through rapture. We need to accept that a sacred fire burns within, whether we're comfortable with this truth or not. Passion is part of Real Life's package because we were created by Love, for Love, to Love. If we do not give outward expression to our passions, we will experience self-immolation- the spontaneous combustion of our souls.
Did you know that both the Koran, the sacred book of Islam, and the Jewish Talmud teach that we will be called to account for every permissible pleasure life offered us but which we refused to enjoy while on earth? Dorothy L. Sayers, the deeply spiritual English writer, believed, 'The only sin passion can commit is to be joyless.'
Go now. Depart in peace and sin no more."
from Simple Abundance- by Sarah Ban Breathnach in her entry for May 25
