Well, I was caught off guard. Perhaps it was hard to think because I was trying to remember to breath correctly while lifting weights. Or perhaps I wasn't prepared because we were talking about sports teams and I don't care about sports. But also at the moment, I really didn't feel passionate about much.
I told him that I am passionate about my Church (which is totally true) and a little about what that entails. But unless you're Mormon, you don't quite realize that being passionate about your Church means it effects everything in your life. For me, it means that I go for 3 hours of church each Sunday (and I'm often conducting the music or teaching a lesson for one of those hours); it means visiting with other women in the ward in their homes once a month; it means going to book club; it means I read my scriptures daily (or trying to, at least); it means that I give 10% of my money to the Church; it means I go to our chapel every Wednesday for mutual and sometimes I'm in charge of the activities; it means keeping touch with the young women on a regular basis, even when they don't come to activities; it means that I'm at the temple every other Saturday for 6 hours as an ordinance worker. Being passionate about being Mormon takes a lot of time and energy - and I don't think people outside of the Church quite realize that.
I AM passionate about being a Mormon woman.
I also realized that, perhaps I have too narrow a definition about what being passionate about something means. So, to broaden it, I've been thinking about things that I get excited, even very excited about. Here are some I've thought of:
- singing. I am singing in the Spectrum Singers choir right now and I come home from every rehearsal totally pumped up.
- travelling. I love seeing new things and when Luke and I travel, we can really pack in a lot,but we still have a lot of fun doing it.
- family. I just adore my family and am excited any time we get to spend time together.
- flowers. They just make me happy, though I wouldn't say I'm passionate about them.
- being creative. I'm a very lucky girl in that I get to do what I enjoy (making collages) and people actually have wanted to buy them.
- psychology. There's a reason I chose it as a major - I find people fascinating.
- being better. I'm constantly trying new ways to structure my time, be more active, live a more fulfilling life. It gets a bit tedious because some times I feel like I'm not improving much, but I think I am. It just takes more time than I'd like sometimes.
- journaling. I will sing its praises to the rafters.
- sales at the grocery store. They make me giddy.
So, hopefully, I won't be caught of guard by the question "what are you passionate about?" anymore.
