Finding my Passion and My Blogoversary is Today!

Happy Blogoversary to Me! It has been 1 year and 207 posts and 7,800 visitors and 28 followers, and 8,683 of you have viewed my YouTube videos!!!

Thank you Thank you Thank you!!!!!! If you've seen the movie "Julie and Julia" you know how Julie's blog readers kept her going and I feel that way about you. Thank you for all the wonderful comments you have sent over this past year. You are all so kind.

I started this blog just before my birthday last year so my birthday and blogoversary coincide very close to the same time. It is always this time of year, around my birthday which BTW is Wed. when I spend some time looking back over my life and reflecting on it, thinking which direction I want it to go. Where is my passion leading me these days.

Have people told you to 'find your passion'? Have they said you need to discover what you truly love to do and do it, make it your career or go after your dreams? Then comes the question, what is your passion? What is my passion?

You may be thinking that basket weaving is my passion. In some ways it is as I truly do enjoy it. But lately I've come to the conclusion, that we as people don't have to have a life long passion in the sense that people and books refer to with regards to 'what am I going to do with my life'. We don't all have to fit the "you must have a passion mold." Now first let me say, as many of you know, I've been married over 21 years to the same wonderful man and will stay with him and be a loving mother to our three beautiful children until the day I die. I also believe in God and strive to follow his word and will do that until I die, so these may be considered life passions. What I'm speaking of is the 'what do I enjoy doing with my life' passion, the 'what makes me happy' passion that is mentioned in books, magazines and on the internet.

Seriously after thinking off and on for years about this but always more so around my birthday. I've decided my passions can change, just like the seasons in my life change. I don't have to have a life long passion and that is ok. It is even ok for my passions to change day to day. You may be thinking then that it is not a true passion if it changes so quickly, but I think passion is what you are interested in and concerned about doing and living for at the moment. In the springtime I am passionate about gardening. When fall arrives and I have to clean out the garden, I'm not so passionate about that. I used to teach one or two basket weaving classes a week and started a basket weaving guild. I thought about weaving much of the day and what I would be teaching next. Now that my classes have greatly slowed down, I've developed many more activities that I enjoy doing. That doesn't mean I enjoy basket weaving any less, it just means I have a full plate of exciting things going on. I have so many interests in life and so many things I enjoy doing that I honestly don't have one passion that just consumes me and makes me want to jump out of bed and get busy with it. I have MANY things I WANT to do each day.

I've kept a journal for some time now. Each morning when I woke up, I would think, what do I want to do with my life today? My answers would change daily depending on the needs of the day. I did find one underlying thread throughout all my answers. I wanted to create a beautiful day for myself and my family. I wanted peace in my home. I wanted laughter and smiles. Does that sound too Pollyannaish? Maybe, but that's what I truly wanted. Slowly over time I began thinking, is that my passion, to create a beautiful day? Can that even be considered a passion? Well, I decided that in a broad sense, for me it can be my passion.

I've decided to give my blog a new look coming up very soon, and thanks to Anne I've got a new tag line "Weaving a Bit of Joy into Every Day." My blog will still continue to have baskets and I plan to continue making videos, and teach the occasional class, but I'm going to include more of the things that bring joy to me and my family. I hope you will continue to read and enjoy my blog and many thanks for being with me through this year.

Blessings,

Nancy