Follow Your Passion

V. Follow your passion! Isn't that what we are always being advised to do, and for most of us that seems impossible, not because we are tied to obligations, mortgages, children, aging parents...no, it's because most of us have no idea what are 'passion' is.

We haven't stopped long enough in our busy lives to ask ourselves 'What are we passionate about?".

Well here is one beautiful young woman who did...and she just happens to be my daughter!

Katie was employed by the Government working for the Attorney General's Office here on the island. She dutifully got up each morning and made her way to the office and dutifully applied herself for the day, then dutifully clocked out at four pm.

One day she said to herself, 'Enough'...not only had she had enough, but she knew that her work her wasn't enough... for her soul.

Kahil Gibran writes "Work is Love made visible".

So it isn't enough to just show up. We must ask what is the purpose of our work?

Someone once told me that we go to work so that we may keep pace with the earth

and the soul of the earth. I like that.

So in that moment she knew she had to follow her passion. Her passion to help others heal.

Without hesitation she enrolled at the Chinese School of Medicine and Acupuncture and is now in her third year.

This girl without knowing how to pay the rent, or find the money for tuition, walked into her passion.

And her passion is now taking her to Nepal.

She is interning as an acupuncturist in the school's clinic and already has repeated requests from patients to have her treat them. Quite a compliment.

She will travel to Nepal in February of 2011 to give acupuncture to the local people in remote regions who have no access to medical treatments. The temperature in Nepal dips to around the 3 Celsius mark for most of the time she is there...and oh, there is no heating in the centre where she will be staying.

No matter, when passion is your fire.

I am always inspired by this girl of mine. By her steadfastness, her unwavering strength

and her gentle and kind heart.

This girl of mine has the hands of a healer...the hands that a tired and frightened hummingbird found one day and stayed for a moment to rest on...it must have known of their

gift for healing.

Here is Katie and her dog 'Mr. Murray',

a rescue pup from Alabama