Each day is a gift to be opened with expectation, joy, and love – unless you just aren’t a morning person and would rather rip into the day with a scowl as you wipe goop from the corner of your eyes and have no higher hope than to make it through till bedtime. The ability to live, love, and laugh your way through life is a function of preparation.
What are you going to do today that you love? That makes you giggle? That feeds a passion?
If there’s nothing on your scheduled program that fits into those categories, then perhaps you haven’t planned well enough. The one item on your daily to-do list that you keep forgetting to include may be JOY.
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On of the greatest sources of joy in my life are the horses I share the barn with. My husband can’t see a dachshund puppy without grinning and every horse is a work of art and nobility to my eyes. Some folks are mesmerized by the vibrant colors of birds or flowers and others by the tantalizing smells of a busy kitchen whisking them away to childhood and Grandma’s home cookin’.
The Intersection of Passion and Preparation
Passion isn’t a product of how well we do something we love, but that we can do it at all. This is where preparation enters the picture.
“When I can’t ride anymore, I shall still keep horses as long as I can hobble along with a bucket and a wheelbarrow. When I can’t hobble, I shall roll my wheelchair out to the fence of the field where my horses graze, and watch them.” – Monica Dickens
For years I was acutely aware that every ride could be my last. Some days I woke up and couldn’t walk. My trusty cane and crutches have been within easy reach for over 30 years. Only the grace of God made it possible for me to have a horse career at all, much less the way it all turned out. In 1997 a surgeon told me is wasn’t possible to do what I did every day; breeding, showing, starting horse under saddle. My days were full of hard work, horses, and joy. If that surgeon was in charge of my schedule I might have started waking up with a scowl and goopy eyes myself and given up my passion.
My right knee was replaced last November. The last full night’s sleep I had was the previous winter. I was on a very restricted budget of upright activity and it was a matter of time before my riding days would be over. Each ride was a gift. Every day I was prepared to drink from the memory of my last ride for the rest of my life.
Someone once said that if you get up every morning and say “This will be my last” – indeed, one day you will be right. Have you thought about your last ride – or your last day? If you think that every day could be your last you’ll plan to include joy, laughter, relationship, and passion in your routine.
People with incredible lives make laughter, love, and passion routine. They live their hearts, spirits, and souls on a daily basis.
What if today was your last day?
Six weeks after surgery I knew my last ride was still some time in the future. Instead of moving away from riding I was moving back. But I have not forgotten that every ride could be my last. Every night when I reach out to touch my sleeping husband’s shoulder I know that one day it will be for the last time. Life, laughter, and love are not functions of age, wealth, ability, or status. They revolve more around giggles, grace, and gratitude than anything else.
You can buy a remedy for lust, but enjoying true passion is always free. Don’t wait. Don’t plan on living the life you dream of someday. Live it today. Passion, joy, laughter, and love are priceless. Be prepared for your last day every day and I guarantee you will be blessed with more laughter and love than you ever expected.
What are you passionate about? WHO are you passionate about. What relationships feed your soul? What will you do differently tomorrow to live more, laugh more, and love more?
Originally posted on AmazingGraysMinistry.com.