Sticking up for people – is a theme for me because I didn’t want to admit that I was indeed the underdog.  If someone was picking on me or ostracizing me from their clique (hellooo Roberta, Angela, Joanne, Michelle and Tami) I convinced myself it was a flaw in their character and went on to take up the cause on behalf of someone else.  Nearly  40 years later, I’m still not completely cured of the need to be accepted by the “cool crowd” even though if you were talking to me now I’d probably say it wasn’t true.

There’s still a first grader in knee socks, a beanie and a plaid skirted uniform wondering what the hell she did wrong to not be invited to play.

So that’s why I stick up for people.  I’m sticking up for me.

That makes me feisty.

At some early point I became a fighter – usually with words but I do recall a boxing match or two in Kim’s garage and a time that I was so enraged at the age of 8 or 9 that I bit my friend’s ear when I was pretending to tell her a secret.  (Sorry Wendy!)  Right after doing it I was so angry at myself that I ran home and went straight to my room to punish myself.  When my parents got the call from Wendy’s mom they came to ask what happened.  I told them I’d done it, but that I was really mad at myself so I was grounding myself. 

Angry is the flip side of passion.  It’s what happens when you have a lot of passion and belief and creativity but you have no idea where to place it.  It’s what happens when you feel like no one else is going to join your cause, or hear you because you’re too small.  So our passion, our drive, gets under our skin and makes us feel like we have to explode and usually we do.

By our 40’s, we’ve learned (in theory at least) that yelling and punching things rarely gets positive results  (Unless you meant to take that wall down for the home improvement project anyway). Still we resist saying and doing what we most passionately believe because we feel small and when we feel small, we get all balled up inside and we explode.

No matter how you slice it you’ve got to let your passion out. 

Either you can in your unique, off-the-wall style filled with laughter and a side order of trepidation or you can do it in a less than pretty way – by bursting with words you don’t mean or acting out physically in a way that harms yourself or others (I can think of at least a dozen “famous” examples from this week alone).

From your passion, comes your power. Your power is your core strength.  You have a right to your passion.  Your passion throbs through you with every heartbeat.  It is what keeps you going.  When you deny it you’ll end up sick – in body, mind or spirit.

I know.  I had to strip myself down to nothing to re-connect to my passion.  From there I’m building a new way of being that lets in more light and provides frequent release of my intensity.  I’m done apologizing for the intensity, but I’m also done exploding.

I’m passionate about my work, it’s like Valentine’s every day – because it is completely based on the assumption that you are the EXPERT about you.  And once you get down to brass tacks – knowing YOU is how you know the Divine.  We’re passionate people and we’re changing the world with our work, our words and our actions.  Helping you get clear on what your work, words and actions are – that’s what I do.

As yourself, during this season of love – what are your passions?  It may seem scary to look inside the things and people and actions that really piss you off but that’s where your passion lies.  If you didn’t care you wouldn’t get so upset.  Now you get to choose how you want to channel those feelings.  No one said it was easy to live our best life.  I’m here to tell you though, it’s a heck of a lot more fulfilling than the alternative of hiding out, playing small and being an armchair wrestler with anyone who disagrees with you.  (It takes one to know one!)

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