Passion

Today I woke up feeling not-so-right, so I called in sick to work and spent the rest of the day trying to relax (any other women out there who feel it's hard to relax at home when there's so many cool projects to complete?) I finally succeeded and succumbed to a documentary on Netflix entitled "Ballerina" It's the story of 5 Ballerina's in the premiere Russia ballet, the Kirov (just learned that today too!) It shows the school where they begin study around the age of 10, and up through their careers.

It was fascinating. The documentary, by it's sheer subject, is aesthetically breath taking. What I didn't know, however, is the sacrifice it takes these dancers to perfect their art. While they all have a deep amount of natural talent, their art is perfected through daily hard and grueling work. The devotion and dedication is shocking. In their interviews few displayed the "prima ballerina" attitude I was expecting, more so a deep devotion to perfection in their dances and passion in performing. They all said there were days they didn't like it, but they still kept going. It's inspiring.

Tonight I listened to a podcast by my good friends Kate and Jon Peters. They are doctors (or student-doctors, I loose track the system is so complicated), and returning to Haiti to serve for a month or so. This is their 3rd return trip to the area after the earthquake. While it's hard work, in hard conditions, they have a deep love for the people and commitment to serving the least-of these. This, significantly more than the ballerina's, is deeply inspiring.

So today I've been pondering passion and it's place in our lives and our futures. We are both passionate about the Lord, each other, and anything international. [Jon's response to "What are we passionate about?" - languages, God, kayaks, you, soccer, countries, traveling.]. And I think we are still waiting on God's time to find the bulls eye of our life-passion - where exactly we'll live, serve, work, and so forth. It's an interesting journey- and the stories today reminded me to keep enjoying it.

"If we don't change the direction we are headed, we will end up where we are going" - Chinese Proverb.