Last night I was at a great dinner party and met a few new people.\u00a0 When I meet new people I always want to ask them what their passion is.\u00a0 It might be what they do for a living or it might not.\u00a0 But passion is what makes people tick.\u00a0 It is what sustains us, brings us joy and gives our life purpose and meaning.\u00a0 Asking people what their passion is opens a doorway into their soul and of course people love talking about their passions.<\/p>\n
For me, loving animals is part of my passion…but it isn’t the whole deal.\u00a0 Teaching and motivating others is also a great passion of mine.\u00a0 I seem to have found it in the process of helping people understand their animals better and helping them to take better care of their animals.\u00a0<\/p>\n
It’s an interesting thing how what we learn about our animals easily translates into what we need to know about our selves and apply to our own lives.\u00a0 I think that is why God gave us the animals as companions…to be our teachers and motivators.\u00a0 To help us live our lives fully and to help us realize the importance of finding our passion.<\/p>\n
The animals have passions too.\u00a0 That is the really cool piece I have learned.\u00a0 Some are obvious.\u00a0\u00a0 Hanna has a passion for chasing squirrels.\u00a0 She will watch out the window for hours waiting for a glimpse of the little furry guy grabbing an acorn and scurrying off to his hidden nest.\u00a0 She erupts into passionate barking and whining.\u00a0 I’m tempted to let her outside to run after that little guy (I’m pretty sure she won’t catch or harm him).\u00a0 She wears her passion out where all can see it…and it borders on obsession.<\/p>\n
Smokey’s \u00a0passion (my Tennessee Walking Horse) is a little less obvious.\u00a0 Unless you’ve been with him a while or talked to him you might not know that his passion is being in his herd\u00a0with his leader…and his mares.\u00a0 Smokey loves his mares and takes his role in the herd very seriously.\u00a0 This is really apparent when another horse is added to the herd and he takes it upon himself to see that order is not lost.<\/p>\n
I used to think that showing horses was something we did for us, and that the horses hated it.\u00a0 Smokey was a product of the Big Lick show circuit in Tennessee and has scars on his legs from the cruel treatment he received.\u00a0 When he came into my life I promised him he would never have to be in a show again.\u00a0 Well that was true for Smokey, but not true for all horses.\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n
Several\u00a0years back I was doing a communication demonstration at a very fancy barn where they were holding a big open house celebration of the breed.\u00a0 I went there with my assumption that the show horses would be sad.\u00a0 I have experienced that from show horses who were kept indoors for 22 of 24 hours a day.\u00a0 But here, the story was different.\u00a0 First, this owner knew her horses needed to have pasture time and they got plenty.\u00a0 But what really surprised me was when I started talking to the horse for my demonstration.\u00a0 He told me not all show horses hate showing…and that I needed to lose my attitude and be more open ;-).\u00a0 He loved showing, it was his passion, he knew he was really good at it (and he was) and he told me others feel that way too.\u00a0 He did also tell me that how the person approaches it makes a big difference…but that many horses loved to show off their athletic abilities.\u00a0 And it is true. \u00a0I have met many animals that find their passion in something they excel at…or is it they excel at it because it is their passion?<\/p>\n
My cat Red is passionate about catching birds.\u00a0 I know many hate to hear this…but it is true.\u00a0 He catches mice and moles too but he tells me there is no challenge in that.\u00a0 He is passionate about the birds because they are a challenge to him and really demonstrate his skills.\u00a0 They can fly away in a second so he finds it really exciting to know that he can be faster and more swift than this creature with wings.\u00a0<\/p>\n
One of my very good clients has a dog that is passionate about herding.\u00a0 He lives to herd.\u00a0 You could say it is his instinct…and it is but it is also his passion.\u00a0 If you took this dog and did not allow him to herd the sheep or find another herding outlet my guess is he would become depressed or ill.\u00a0 When we are cut off from our passion whether we are animals or human animals we wither.\u00a0 We need to feed the passion just as we need to feed our bodies.\u00a0 The more we feed ourselves and our animals with the passion that sustains us the more alive, vibrant and healthy we will all be.\u00a0<\/p>\n
Do you know what your companions’ passion is?\u00a0 Do you know what your passion is?\u00a0\u00a0 Look to that which either of you can do for hours and not even think about it.\u00a0 You become absorbed and everything else fades away.\u00a0 This will give you some clues.\u00a0\u00a0 And if you know what your passion is…what your animal’s passion is, engage in it; embrace it.\u00a0 Your passion will set both of you free.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
I think that is why God gave us the animals as companions…to be our teachers and motivators. To help us live our lives fully and to help us realize the importance of finding our passion.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":7,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_genesis_hide_title":false,"_genesis_hide_breadcrumbs":false,"_genesis_hide_singular_image":false,"_genesis_hide_footer_widgets":false,"_genesis_custom_body_class":"","_genesis_custom_post_class":"","_genesis_layout":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-36","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","category-uncategorized","entry","gs-1","gs-odd","gs-even","gs-featured-content-entry"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/wendywolfe.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/36","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/wendywolfe.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/wendywolfe.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wendywolfe.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/7"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wendywolfe.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=36"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/wendywolfe.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/36\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/wendywolfe.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=36"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wendywolfe.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=36"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wendywolfe.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=36"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}