Changing Passions

Do you believe passions come and go? Can there be different degrees of passions? Can one have more than one passion at a time? Is a passion really just having a one track mind? Therefore, does having more than one passion make one well rounded? What is your passion? What is MY passion, or passions?

At age 14 my passion, outside of normal "passions" at that age - namely boys, clothes, hair styles - was writing. I wrote poetry (see above sentence referencing "boys"). I started a book about two sisters driving to visit grandparents in another state in the older sister's new Mustang convertible. The characters and places in this book mirrored my life and family. Uh, except for the Mustang. I'm still waiting to realize that one. This passion continued through high school but was cooled down when I got married. My passion then became music. Country music. My uncle was a DJ for a country radio station that began sponsoring major country music stars to appear in the local coliseum. I was fortunate enough to be asked to be the opening act for one of those shows.  I ended up with a little country band composed of normal working guys from around town and we played at local community centers and fairs. That was fun for a while. Life happened and son #1 came along. He was more important than music.

I suppose my next passion was crochet. Hours and hours of work, skeins and skeins of yarn, afghans by the dozens flew out of my crochet hook. Then it was counted cross stitch. Hours and hours of work, skeins and skeins of embroidery floss, dozens of projects flew out of my needle.

Then it was back to writing. I wanted to write a book. A real grown up book. I began attending writers conferences and workshops. I heard the same instructions over and over on how to write, organize, submit stories, pitch articles and book ideas. I began writing for a local paper that was published monthly. I wrote for them for seven years.

Then I began quilting. Rather, I began sewing quilts. Most people think of quilting as needle and thread, an old quilt frame hanging from the ceiling, old women sitting around the frame gossiping and sewing. That still happens in lots of places. Well I don't know about the gossiping part but absolutely I know about the quilting part. My quilting consists of a  rotary cutter, cutting mat, ruler, sewing machine, and lots of fun. I think that is my passion now. If I didn't have to eat, sleep, and work I could really get a lot of sewing/quilting done!

My writing has fallen by the wayside. No longer as passionate about writing as I once was, even this blog is lacking in frequency of entries. I'm trying to do better. Yeah, yeah, you've heard that one before. Mother once said, "I wish you would write a book instead of quilting. You can quilt when you get old." I told her, "I am old!" After asking her why she was so anxious for me to write a book, she said, "I want to go with you on a book signing tour!" Then I told her even if I wrote a book and finished it in a month, it might take years before a publisher agreed to publish it, then another year for it to actually hit my doorstep, then I'd have to hire an agent to promote me and set up signings. I told her, "Mom, you'd be dead and gone before that ever happened!"

She just laughed and said, "If you enjoy quilting then have at it." And I'm almost sure I heard her say as she walked away, "You're not old enough to be quilting."