Full of beans

Christina left a comment on my post "Where is the Passion?" which summed up what I've been thinking about over the last hour. And to prove I'm not always whiny, and to show what an emotional see-saw I ride, I decided I needed to write a response to my own post.

I do still have passion, I'm just not 20 anymore and I have a lot more responsibilities than I did when I was 20. So my passion looks different, at least the way I vocalize and think about those things I love looks different. I still love to read poetry and feel the sun on my face. I think about the people of the Maldive Islands, who will lose their islands due to climate change, every time I get in a car. My understanding of environmental issues has deepened but I don't have the freedom of time to go flitting off to DC to protect wilderness like I did when I was 20. As a 40-something mother of 3, working on a PhD and running a household, my energy for my passions has had to diffuse to more things. And I now have 3 individual passions that take up way more energy to maintain than any whale ever did. We have 20 year olds in our society to be the passionate, tireless souls that they are, because at 40 we are tired and have to keep the rest of life moving! So, I'm glad I'm a 40 year old woman who struggles to keep her passions alive. And if nothing else, I can say, like Mary Oliver did--I'm still full of beans! This blog is evidence of it.