Living Happiness

I was on the treadmill, busting into my second half-hour of cardio the other day when it came on, the familiar DUNT. Dunt-dunt-dunt. Dunt-dunt-dunt. Dunt-dunt-DUNNNNNH, with the helicopter-like electric guitar thrumming as an undercurrent in the background.

Risin’ up, back on the street,
Did my time, took my chances

Aw, yeah.  Nothing like a bit of Survivor’s “Eye of the Tiger” to get me going.

“Eye of the Tiger” is a very popular song here at the gyms in Greece.  You can’t show up at one (any one) of them and not be serenaded by “Tiger” at least once during your weight training circuit.  But I must shamelessly admit that, on this particular day, this particular rendition came to me courtesy of my iPod and not the speakers at Planet Fitness.  Yes, my name is Chania Girl, and far too many of my workout tunes are songs that last reached their peak in the ’80s.  A little Poison, anyone?  Def Leppard?  I know.  It’s sad really.

But I love “Eye of the Tiger.”  It’s catchy, it’s edgy, it’s nostalgic. And it also has these great lines (in my humble opinion, anyway) which get me every time:

So many times, it happens too fast.
You trade your passion for glory.

So true.  I’ve had far too many moments lately where this has definitely been the case.  Trading passion for glory.  Going after the glitz and glamour … and forgetting all about the joy of simply doing what I love.  Wanting the reward with the least amount of effort.  And all this got me thinking.

As a lot of you know, I’m a word-lover, a philologos in the truest sense of the word, and words and meaning are everything to me: nuance, history, art, and mystery.  They thrill me to my very core.

So when I got home, I began doing some digging into the treasure trove of language (thesaurus, by the way, comes from the Greek word for treasure) and discovered these things about passion and glory that I would like to share with you.

First, you can’t have passion without patience.  And you can’t have either one without suffering.  Really.  It’s true.  Look these words up for yourself and you will find that the very root of both passion and patience is the same: the Latin word pati which literally means to undergo, to endure, to suffer.

But when was the last time we heard anything like this?  “Live your passion.”  “Be your passion,” we are admonished on an almost-daily basis (especially if you watch Oprah like I do).  But how many people are also saying, “Oh, and by the way, in doing so, be prepared to suffer”?  Maybe some.  Okay, maybe a few.  But the message might be more clear if what we heard was the literal translation:

“Live your suffering. Be your suffering.”

You see, there can be no prize, there can be no glory, without passion.  And there can be no passion without patience, without suffering … even though we’d really like for this not to be true.

Ask any person who has achieved something worthwhile, who has truly “lived” his/her passion and they will tell you that the road to glory is a long one and that it is fraught with obstacles and perils and battles to what feel like the death.

For most people, glory doesn’t come quickly or easily.  It comes behind a lot of blood, sweat and tears, the result of patience (again) that carries implicit within its meaning the idea of suffering.  You’ve all seen Rocky; you know what I’m talking about:  You have to go through the fight to get to the prize. You have to withstand life’s punches to be granted any praise.

And herein lies my second big discovery of the day: praise and prize are both related to the word price.  In fact, it was only during the 14th century that the three words (praise, prize, and price) began to diverge from one another to become the separate cognates we have today.  And what is price?

Price is the cost of something.  And cost?  Ah, again, the muse of language stepped in and answered: Cost is standing, not moving, remaining firm.

Cost, ironically, is the word closest in meaning to our word “patience” today.  Cost is planting your feet and standing your ground, instead of running when things get tough.

When troubles come your way, when agonies force themselves upon you, you bear the cost by standing firm.  Your bearing the cost, your willingness to stand, is your making a conscious decision not to flee.  It is your choosing to plant your feet in the path of destiny and say, “I’m not moving.” And it is this stance that helps you receive the blows life deals you … and deliver your own punches right back as you fight to keep your dream alive.

This, therefore, is the suffering that becomes known as patience.  And it is this patience that births one’s passion, a passion which, if fought for, becomes one’s prize: that hard-earned trophy that represents the cost of all you’ve stood for.

If you are daunted today by the task in front of you.   If you want to live your passion but feel beset by obstacles, know that this is not an aberration of nature.   Obstacles are built into the heart of passion itself.  But don’t let this deter you from going after your dream.  The prize at the end will be well worth the effort, for that reward will carry within it all of the suffering you may have endured.  And isn’t this worth more than a free trophy any day?

Please share your thoughts today.

What has living your passion meant for you?

What obstacles have you faced on the road to your dream?

What dreams do you have that are worth fighting for?

All of your comments are welcome.

Strength and grace to you today,

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