Thursday ponderings on passion

There are very few things in this life I take too seriously, or care too much about. I don't know if that is a good thing or a bad thing..maybe it is a little bit of both. I'm pretty nonchalant about most things, and my reaction to most things is indifference. Unless I feel extreme happiness, sadness, or excitement (or insert whatever emotion here), I have a very "mmmhmm", "that's nice", "ohh that's too bad" type of reaction. It's weird though, because when I do react to something, it becomes way more of a reaction then is really necessary.

*Like when I get stressed out, I get extremely stressed out. Can't sleep, can't stop thinking about whatever the issue is. Any pending big decisions....I start to feel the stress. I am feeling it right now, and I have a feeling it won't be going away any time soon.

*When I went to NYC for the first time, my parents kind of told me as a surprise thing. And I freaked right out. I actually started crying I was so excited and happy. If that is not an extreme overreaction, I don't know what is.

I'm not entirely sure where I was going with this....it wasn't intended to be a post about how I react to various situations. OH. I was leading into passion.

Passion for what you do. Right! I was going to talk about the dogs again. Yup, get over it!

I love those dogs, and I love going into the humane society. I enjoy my time there, and when I am there, I do the best possible job I can do to make those animals lives a little bit better. This is a cause I care deeply about, and really, anyone who works or volunteers in that field has to feel the same way. Has too. You can't be nonchalant about it, because if you are, why are you there in the first place? You can't do it just to do it, because if you do that, you'll get bored and stop caring. You need to do it because you love it, because you can feel yourself making a difference, and for once, it's not all about you.

Sometimes when I am there, I clean out the dog cages. Someone asked me today, "why do you do that?". Well....I do it because I don't want the dogs lying in shit...They are already stuck in a kennel all day, at least I can try and make it less stinky. Yeah, picking up dog shit is not high on my list of favourite activities, but when I am at the humane society, I think of all those dogs as MY dogs, and I have to take care of them the best I know how while I am there. If that means getting a bit dirty, then I don't really care! I love them, and want them to be adopted into loving homes. A person is less likely to adopt a dog if it is sitting there in its own mess. So yes, I clean the cage. Any worker or volunteer who is not willing to clean out cages when they volunteer/work in a humane society shouldn't be there.

I feel like I"m kind of veering off into preaching territory, but hey, sometimes you gotta get out the soapbox, especially if it's something you are passionate about.

Look at this face:

Hells yes he is smiling. That's why I do it. That's why anybody who is there should do it. Because of that face.

Passion. I haven't found too many jobs or causes that I am passionate about in this life, but holy crap, I"m glad I discovered this one.