During my mission, someone asked me, “Don’t you have a passion for anything? The music playing, the song should get you excited… to go out… to do things. Passion is important.”
At the time, I wanted to tell him that I wasn’t always like that… passionless… unmotivated… just willing to do the day to day things to keep things going… doing time. In fact, I was quite the opposite prior to that. Enthusiastic, energetic, full of life and vitality. But my world turned upside down in such a short space in time that during those months, I had lost it all.
But I didn’t lose my sense of duty, of obligation and of friendship. He taught me so much and I decided to do the best I could so that I could help him accomplish the goals that he had for his mission. He had worked so hard on his mission that the least I could do was give him my very best.
Although we were very successful in our missionary efforts, I never did see that level of passion and enthusiasm that I had in my early 20s. Perhaps during the ensuing years, my passion has morphed into an incredible sense of duty and dedication to the people that I care about the most: my wife and my children. This dedication manifested itself through the work I did at school. The serious, steadfastness and sombre me that is needed for a dependable father. But the child-like giddyness and zest for life that I used to have prior to my mission eludes me.
Is that a good thing? Does growing up mean that we have to say goodbye to that child-like passion and the ability to dream dreams? Must we always be realistic and level headed? Is there room in adult-hood for flying on the wings of anticipation as LMM puts it?
Passion… true passion for life is something I would like to have back again and to share it with my wife and children. Because without dreams, we cannot create our reality.