Passion.

“Passion is one of those words that people use often without really understanding the original meaning of the word. When most people refer to “passion”, they use it to mean strong emotions reflecting an intense desire or boundless enthusiasm (At least, that’s how I’ve always heard it used).”

Full article: https://www.embracepossibility.com/blog/real-meaning-passion/

I’d pasted this up in my old brain dump spot but it seems important enough to revisit. Words are tossed about carelessly and lose meaning over time. Passion is one of the most often misused, or passionless, or without passion. The above article is an important correction. People may just mean love, or lust or infatuation but they surely, only in the most rare cases, mean passion. Passion is, by the correct definition, something that we’ve come to define as something entirely different and altogether undesirable in how we’ve come to judge healthy, romantic love or desire. It’s something that might require hardship and sacrifice and while those things are part and parcel of any lasting relationship we don’t like to talk about them, do we? We’re taught in contemporary culture to cut and run if hard work comes into the picture.

“Look at your life and highlight the things you love that you’re willing to suffer for.”

You might want to sit back and reflect a bit on whether that line fits into your idea of romantic love. An expectation of effortlessness is probably entirely unrealistic and if you’re not up for work you might just want to get a houseplant or something that requires less emotional investment.

There could very well be other inanimate pursuits or pastimes in your life that you already work very hard at and are willing to continue despite a ton of effort. That’s passion.

I watch people around me step in and out of romantic situations. I listen to their reasons for stepping away from longstanding relationships and discontinuing shorter entanglements as soon as the soonest complication or disagreement arises. We’re all self-protective so hesitation is understandable but it’s telling that relationships falter where infatuation is challenged. I’m no different really. It’s only through mindfulness that I’ve sorted out the difference between red flags, or behaviors and traits in other people, and triggers from my own past that have everything to do with me and little to nothing to do with any other person in question. That applies to friendships, business relationships and romance.

I should rephrase that and say that it’s only through continual reflection that I remember that there is a difference between red flags and triggers.

In accordance with all this I have to be mindful that others’ words often need to be translated from my definition to theirs in order to discern meaning. We are all often separated by a common language.

Words matter. Deeds matter much more, but words still matter.