Passion

"You are what you think about all day long."
- Dr Robert Schuller (apparently. I wasn't there to hear him say it)

I believe that, one hundred percent. We are what we think about all day long. What else could we possibly be? We are not our face or our bodies or our jobs or our friends. We are our minds, our thoughts, our hopes, our beliefs. These are what define us, what make us who we are.

So who are we? Who am I? Who are you?

I was pondering this on my recent holiday. If I am what I think about, then to determine who I am, I need only identify my thoughts. And the first place to start is to figure out what I feel passionately about.

Sounds easy - after all, we all feel passionately about something. But we don't always know what we feel passionately about. I have been surprised more than one by my passionate reaction to an issue I had never given much conscious thought. Sometimes we need to be placed in a situation in which our attitudes are brought to our attention by force. Which leaves me wondering how much of myself I still don't know. How many beliefs I have yet to uncover. How many passions I may never find.

Still, I have a list of beliefs that I feel passionately about. Some of them I will share below. Some of them I will keep to myself. And I will keep on thinking, and keep on discovering. And I would love it if you shared some of your passionate beliefs with me.

My passionate beliefs (in no particular order):

• The right of children to unconditional love and acceptance from their parents;
• That Eminem is the Shakespeare of our generation;
• The right of women to choose abortion;
• That white chocolate is not real chocolate;
• That there is no god;
• The importance of charity;
• That poverty is the fault of society and not the individual;
• The importance of free speech, a free health care system, and social welfare;
• The right of couples to marry regardless of gender;
• That addicts deserve compassion and not punishment;
• That diets are unhelpful at best and dangerous at worst;
• That the most important quality any human being can have is kindness;
• That there is no one right or wrong way to mother;
• That life is random and that bad things happen to good people for no reason;
• That human beings are capable of change;
• That love isn't all you need, but it certainly helps.

NOTE: The #MyFirst.,. series will commence again on Monday.
With #MyFirst... Date. Of course!