joy & delight

more marvels of nature - the common dandelion

Passion,

it lies in all of us. sleeping ... waiting ... and though unwanted ... unbidden ...
it will stir ... open it's jaws and howl. It speaks to us ... guides us ...
passion rules us all, and we obey. What other choice do we have ?
Passion is the source of our finest moments. The joy of love ... the clarity of hatred ...
and the ecstasy of grief. It hurts sometimes more than we can bear.
If we could live without passion maybe we'd know some kind of peace ...
but we would be hollow ... Empty rooms shuttered and dank.
Without passion we'd be truly dead.

Joss Whedon

I think for years I've been very afraid of my own passion. I saw it as something wild and unruly. A thing to be tamed or smothered. A sign that something was surely wrong with me. My heart would beat rapidly, my breath would become shallow, the tears would fall ... oh so many tears fell and I would most often feel shame. Crazy as that now seems. I'm beginning, finally, to embrace it's intensity. To appreciate and be thankful for it's many gifts and to welcome with wide open arms it's variety of complex characters.

Sadness & Ache, Joy & Delight ... sometimes arrive all together and holding hands.