The importance of passion

I have said for years that without passion, you have an empty life.  

I am not saying it is the most profound thought ever, but it is something I truly believe in. Especially when things go bad. If nothing else, passion helps deal with the stress when life gets a bit crazy. Distraction can be a god send when you can fall back on things that you truly love.

But it is more than that.

There is a joy in being passionate about something. That “thing” that can always make you feel better, no matter the time or place. That thing that you can find others that love it as much as you do and revel in the fact that you can talk about it for what seems like forever.

This is what has been missing in my life.

I have two passions. Two things that have been such an important part of who I am that It used to be impossible to imagine not doing either. Times change.

The first is reading. Especially the fantasy and mystery genres. I grew up on the Lord of the Rings, and read the Dresden Files once a year. Every year.  There have only been a few times In my life where I did not want to read. Which is a big damn clue as to how depressed I am at that point. I mean no matter what, I am a reader. I take a book EVERYWHERE. But in the last year, I have been hot and cold with it. I am out of that now, but it is hard to look at my life and see how unimportant it was.

The second is gaming, the tabletop kind. This is something I have done for almost 25 years now. Something that became such a huge part of me and over the years gave me so many great moments. I have made friends though this. My closest friends became close through this. This has always been there and although people might find the idea of playing a thief, jedi, fighting the minions of cthulhu, wizard in the dresdenverse, etc., silly. It is something I loved.

Both things have been missing. I am reading now, but the gaming thing is coming much slower. Mostly cuz gaming requires a lot of time and people to do it with. The last isn’t really a problem, but the first has been.

I am almost there I think.

Not quite, as I have a chance to do it this weekend. But I don’t think I am quite ready for that yet as I just don’t have the energy yet.. But the time will come when I am ready to pull out the dice and kick some ass is coming.

Cuz I need that passion back. My life is missing without it.