Developing Passion

My time on the south coast of France is coming to an end, and once I again I have learned so much. In fact, I feel that this marks the end of a decade long journey for me. Ten years ago, I made the decision to depart from a life that had been set out for me. I wanted to find passion again, the thing which I had given up on at a young age. I wanted to find that thing which drove me, consumed me and fulfilled me. I didn’t want to be a robot anymore, I wanted to make my own path in my own unique way.

Who else could I share this moment with other than Rilke himself? All along, he had the perfect image for passion and his words were just waiting for my eyes to see it. Author Thomas Moore refers to one of Rilke’s poems in a book that I recently came across, Care of the Soul. Moore says that passion means “to be affected”… that it is a muscle, not just some mysterious power that comes and goes. As Rilke puts it, passion is “a muscle of infinite reception” like that of a flower in blossom.

Spring time seems like the perfect time to have made this discovery as well. As the weather is on the cusp of heating up, the flowers have been exposing themselves one by one. Opening themselves up to receive sunlight, air and whatever else comes with it. It’s so interesting that Rilke describes it as a muscle of reception… as if the capacity to be affected is a strength that we can develop over time. It helps us realise that the delicate flower is in fact equally as powerful, more than she seems.

Vulnerability, passion and power – all these three things can be summed up in the act of blooming. As far as I know for some flowers, blooming is caused by the build up of pressure within certain parts of the bud. It’s this build up of pressure which teaches the flower receive and eventually have the strength to open up. The analogy to life is irresistible. But when the pressure builds in life, we often forget that the most beautiful part is just on the horizon.

Maybe passion is our ability to embrace this pressure, while keeping in mind that our own bloom is about to occur. Our ability to remain conscious throughout the whole process. Feeling the squeeze of stress but smiling in the end, because we know that every challenge makes us stronger.

I used to think that passion was something that needed to guide me, but now I know it’s something that needs me to be stronger so I can guide it.