{"id":3794,"date":"2012-08-31T09:04:24","date_gmt":"2012-08-31T13:04:24","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/blog.beliefnet.com\/blissblog\/?p=3794"},"modified":"2012-08-31T09:04:30","modified_gmt":"2012-08-31T13:04:30","slug":"passionate-life","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/blissblog\/2012\/08\/passionate-life.html","title":{"rendered":"Passionate Life"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><a href=\"https:\/\/wp-media.beliefnet.com\/sites\/107\/2012\/08\/passionatelife.jpg\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"aligncenter size-full wp-image-3795\" title=\"passionatelife\" src=\"https:\/\/wp-media.beliefnet.com\/sites\/107\/2012\/08\/passionatelife.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"371\" height=\"480\" \/><\/a><\/p>\n<p>What are you passionate about?\u00a0 What lights you up from the inside and turns you into a human sparkler? Is there something that you simply can&#8217;t wait to do when you get up (after taking care of necessary bodily functions, of course)?\u00a0 For me, it is writing. I found my calling pretty early in life as I toted around books as often as I did dolls and toys. My parents and grandmother would read to me daily and I practically lived at the library down the street, sitting at tiny tables as the &#8216;library lady&#8217; (although I first heard the title as &#8216;li-berry&#8217; when 3 or 4) presented story hour. Dr. Seuss, Little Golden Books, Highlights Magazine, Grimms Fairy Tales were all staples in our home. My father would refer to the bathroom as &#8216;the library&#8217; at times; a relatively quiet place where he could read for a bit. My parents were avid readers as well; my mother&#8217;s interests leaning more toward mystery and romance and my father immersed himself in health, fitness, WWII novels and spirituality. They both read until a few weeks prior to their deaths over the past 4 years.\u00a0 My father was buried with his bible and a\u00a0book of\u00a0Jewish prayers and concepts.\u00a0 I read to him from that one while he was making his transition. Mine has been eclectic: sci fi, adventure, poetry, romance, spirituality, sexuality, bio&#8217;s and personal growth\/self help. Much of my own writing combines those genres.<\/p>\n<p>I can&#8217;t imagine a life without the wonder of words. They feed my soul, heal my heart and give voice to thoughts that fill my head, threatening to spill out of my ears\u00a0if I wasn&#8217;t willing to\u00a0put them on paper or screen. I never get writer&#8217;s block&#8230;sometimes just the opposite occurs and it parallels that commercial &#8220;I&#8217;ve fallen and I can&#8217;t get up.&#8221;&#8230;.&#8221;I&#8217;m talking (writing) and I can&#8217;t shut up.&#8221; Can anyone here relate to that? My mind is almost constantly whirring\/whirling\/swirling with ideas that often awaken me in the wee hours, daring me to jot them down, lest they disappear back into the mish -mosh pit, getting swept into the rowdy crowd. I am blessed that I have outlets (this one included:) that allow me the opportunity to be heard and the joy of knowing that some of them spur people on to discovering their own purpose and passion.<\/p>\n<p>A grateful nod to the wordsmiths who have inspired me over the years, including Richard Bach, Dan Millman, Mary Oliver, Thea Alexander, Rumi, Hafiz, Robert Heinlein, Elizabeth Lesser, SARK, Elizabeth Gilbert, Barry and Joyce Vissell, Ram Dass&#8230;and way too many more to mention. Just listing their names could be a blog entry. I am delighted to be among them as I know I will always be passionately, decidedly, affirmatively, deliriously interested\u00a0 in crafting word pictures.<\/p>\n<p><a href=\"http:\/\/youtu.be\/x_f56CZ99JY\">http:\/\/youtu.be\/x_f56CZ99JY<\/a>\u00a0What A Feeling-Flash Dance by Irene Cara<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>What are you passionate about?\u00a0 What lights you up from the inside and turns you into a human sparkler? Is there something that you simply can&#8217;t wait to do when you get up (after taking care of necessary bodily functions, of course)?\u00a0 For me, it is writing. I found my calling pretty early in life&hellip;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":233,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[40,1,12,8,33,19,3,14,4,16,38,6,37],"tags":[4853,724,649,2158,842,1070,1862,970,2164,2161,969,2157,2160,632,762,479,59,910,2159,766,2163,4857],"class_list":["post-3794","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-affirmations","category-attracting-what-you-desire","category-bliss-kiss-for-your-weekend","category-communication","category-creativity","category-empowerment","category-gratitude","category-how-to-invite-bliss","category-inspiration","category-my-personal-bliss","category-transformation","category-visualization","category-writing","tag-creativity","tag-dan-millman","tag-dr-seuss","tag-elizabeth-gilbert","tag-elizabeth-lesser","tag-grimms-fairy-tales","tag-hafiz","tag-highlights-magazine","tag-irene-cara","tag-julia-childs","tag-little-golden-books","tag-mary-oliver","tag-personal-growth","tag-ram-dass","tag-richard-bach","tag-robert-heinlein","tag-rumi","tag-sark","tag-self-help","tag-thea-alexander","tag-what-a-feeling-flash-dance","tag-writing"],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v23.9 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/wordpress\/plugins\/seo\/ -->\n<title>Passionate Life - The Bliss Blog<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/blissblog\/2012\/08\/passionate-life.html\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Passionate Life - The Bliss Blog\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"What are you passionate about?\u00a0 What lights you up from the inside and turns you into a human sparkler? Is there something that you simply can&#8217;t wait to do when you get up (after taking care of necessary bodily functions, of course)?\u00a0 For me, it is writing. I found my calling pretty early in life&hellip;\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/blissblog\/2012\/08\/passionate-life.html\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"The Bliss Blog\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:author\" content=\"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/snuggleyoga\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2012-08-31T13:04:24+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:modified_time\" content=\"2012-08-31T13:04:30+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"http:\/\/blog.beliefnet.com\/blissblog\/files\/2012\/08\/passionatelife.jpg\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"Edie Weinstein, MSW, LSW\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:creator\" content=\"@EdieWeinstein1\" \/>\n<!-- \/ Yoast SEO plugin. -->","yoast_head_json":{"title":"Passionate Life - The Bliss Blog","robots":{"index":"index","follow":"follow","max-snippet":"max-snippet:-1","max-image-preview":"max-image-preview:large","max-video-preview":"max-video-preview:-1"},"canonical":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/blissblog\/2012\/08\/passionate-life.html","og_locale":"en_US","og_type":"article","og_title":"Passionate Life - The Bliss Blog","og_description":"What are you passionate about?\u00a0 What lights you up from the inside and turns you into a human sparkler? Is there something that you simply can&#8217;t wait to do when you get up (after taking care of necessary bodily functions, of course)?\u00a0 For me, it is writing. I found my calling pretty early in life&hellip;","og_url":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/blissblog\/2012\/08\/passionate-life.html","og_site_name":"The Bliss Blog","article_author":"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/snuggleyoga","article_published_time":"2012-08-31T13:04:24+00:00","article_modified_time":"2012-08-31T13:04:30+00:00","og_image":[{"url":"http:\/\/blog.beliefnet.com\/blissblog\/files\/2012\/08\/passionatelife.jpg"}],"author":"Edie Weinstein, MSW, LSW","twitter_card":"summary_large_image","twitter_creator":"@EdieWeinstein1","schema":{"@context":"https:\/\/schema.org","@graph":[{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/blissblog\/2012\/08\/passionate-life.html","url":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/blissblog\/2012\/08\/passionate-life.html","name":"Passionate Life - The Bliss Blog","isPartOf":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/blissblog\/#website"},"primaryImageOfPage":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/blissblog\/2012\/08\/passionate-life.html#primaryimage"},"image":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/blissblog\/2012\/08\/passionate-life.html#primaryimage"},"thumbnailUrl":"http:\/\/blog.beliefnet.com\/blissblog\/files\/2012\/08\/passionatelife.jpg","datePublished":"2012-08-31T13:04:24+00:00","dateModified":"2012-08-31T13:04:30+00:00","author":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/blissblog\/#\/schema\/person\/edcd643a643a9ca91adb1e8f9e177386"},"breadcrumb":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/blissblog\/2012\/08\/passionate-life.html#breadcrumb"},"inLanguage":"en-US","potentialAction":[{"@type":"ReadAction","target":["https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/blissblog\/2012\/08\/passionate-life.html"]}]},{"@type":"ImageObject","inLanguage":"en-US","@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/blissblog\/2012\/08\/passionate-life.html#primaryimage","url":"http:\/\/blog.beliefnet.com\/blissblog\/files\/2012\/08\/passionatelife.jpg","contentUrl":"http:\/\/blog.beliefnet.com\/blissblog\/files\/2012\/08\/passionatelife.jpg"},{"@type":"BreadcrumbList","@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/blissblog\/2012\/08\/passionate-life.html#breadcrumb","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"name":"Home","item":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/blissblog"},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"name":"Passionate Life"}]},{"@type":"WebSite","@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/blissblog\/#website","url":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/blissblog\/","name":"The Bliss Blog","description":"Beliefnet Voices - Edie Weinstein","potentialAction":[{"@type":"SearchAction","target":{"@type":"EntryPoint","urlTemplate":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/blissblog\/?s={search_term_string}"},"query-input":{"@type":"PropertyValueSpecification","valueRequired":true,"valueName":"search_term_string"}}],"inLanguage":"en-US"},{"@type":"Person","@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/blissblog\/#\/schema\/person\/edcd643a643a9ca91adb1e8f9e177386","name":"Edie Weinstein, MSW, LSW","image":{"@type":"ImageObject","inLanguage":"en-US","@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/blissblog\/#\/schema\/person\/image\/","url":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/blissblog\/wp-content\/wphb-cache\/gravatar\/0d6\/0d6cd7619da51a9a40cc705280e88f9cx96.jpg","contentUrl":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/blissblog\/wp-content\/wphb-cache\/gravatar\/0d6\/0d6cd7619da51a9a40cc705280e88f9cx96.jpg","caption":"Edie Weinstein, MSW, LSW"},"description":"Edie Weinstein, MSW, LSW is a colorfully creative journalist, inspiring transformational speaker, licensed social worker, interfaith minister, editor, radio host, BLISS coach, event producer, Cosmic Concierge, the author of The Bliss Mistress Guide To Transforming The Ordinary Into The Extraordinary and co-author of Embraced By the Divine: The Emerging Woman\u2019s Gateway to Power, Passion and Purpose. She has also contributed to several anthologies and personal growth books. Edie has interviewed such notables as Ram Dass, Wayne Dyer, Debbie Ford, don Miguel Ruiz, don Miguel Ruiz, Jr. Marianne Williamson, Grover Washington, Jr. Noah Levine, Shirley MacLaine, Dennis Weaver, Ben and Jerry and His Holiness the Dalai Lama. She calls herself an Opti-mystic who sees the world through the eyes of possibility. Edie is the founder of Hug Mobsters Armed With Love, which offers FREE HUGS events on a planned and spontaneous basis. www.opti-mystical.com.","sameAs":["http:\/\/www.opti-mystical.com","https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/snuggleyoga","https:\/\/x.com\/EdieWeinstein1"],"url":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/blissblog\/author\/eweinstein"}]}},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/blissblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3794","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/blissblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/blissblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/blissblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/233"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/blissblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=3794"}],"version-history":[{"count":6,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/blissblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3794\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":3801,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/blissblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3794\/revisions\/3801"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/blissblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=3794"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/blissblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=3794"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/blissblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=3794"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}