Emma Curtis Hopkins, a mystic, healer and author of the 19th and 20th Century, wrote these words: “When the heart is afire with divine love, the soul is illumined, and nothing is impossible.” When I wonder why my life is not moving in a more positive direction, I ask myself if what I am doing is setting my heart afire with divine love? Here’s a question: “What would your life look like if you let your heart burn with unstoppable passion and purpose?”

For myself, I believe that the times that I have allowed my heart to flow in creativity and truth, it has led me to the thing that is mine to do. Just today, I found myself back doing the thing I love most – writing. Someone commented to me the other day, “Oh, writing is your passion?” She didn’t know me very well, nor did she know that I have written my whole life. I have over 4000 blogs, three books and stories galore. Writing most definitely is my passion. Yet, I have not always trusted it and followed its trail.

When Emma speaks of Divine Love, I believe she is saying that Infinite Intelligence is creative. The vibration of passion attracts its like vibration. How do you think the Universe works? Spirit contemplates and manifestation occurs. This thought boggles my mind and I wonder why I don’t truly embody this idea in every moment. There is something we are all meant to do, to be, to live as. What can happen is instead of living whatever that is, we allow the 3D world to dictate to us what we need to do in order to survive, make more money, get more things. We have many excuses for not letting go to our creative spirit.

My whole life has been a fight between these two questions: Am I going to live my passion or am I going to make money and survive? What I have found is I will never live fully until I am fully living my passion. It won’t matter how much money I make or what I achieve. I knew a man who used the excuse that he couldn’t follow his passion because he had to support his family. He could barely support his family and worked long hours to do so. I met another man who gave up his corporate life to become an entrepreneur and he became a millionaire. His family truly benefited from his choice. However, he wasn’t chasing money, he was living passionately.

Do we live our lives as Henry David Thoreau would say, “in quiet desperation,” or are we living fully with a heart of fire for what we are doing. Our calling won’t wait for us, and what I have found and seen is we will usually go back to it. I knew a person who loved theater and acting. Instead of pursuing it, he took the route of getting a job and making some money. He did well for a while, but then everything fell apart, and he ended up with nothing, but a broken heart. Now he is turning back to his passion.

Am I saying that following our passion is a guaranteed road to success? Yes, but my definition of success is living fully, joy-filled and alive with zeal. Howard Thurman wrote, “Don’t ask yourself what the world needs. Ask yourself what makes you come alive and go do that. Because what the world needs is people who have come alive.”

If you’ve been following the news at all, you will notice that many people who thought their jobs were guaranteed are losing them now. Nothing is permanent and just because we think we are taking the safe route doesn’t guaranty safety and permanence.

What is your gift? What makes your heart sing? What gives you so much joy that the hours pass without evening noticing? Whatever this is, I invite you to do it. I’m not saying go quit your job, but I am saying it might be better not to waste any more time. All the great inventions, movements and events that transformed our thinking and thus our world didn’t happen because those people involved played it safe. No, instead, they heard a call and they followed it.

Right now, I am reigniting my own passion. Even though, I live a life doing the things to which I truly resonate, I can still find myself worried about money instead of living passionately. I’ve made new agreement with myself: If my heart’s not in it, either get my heart in it or leave it behind. My heart will lead the way.

Ernest Holmes, my favorite mystic wrote, “There is a law that responds to the fervent emotion of the heart, and it is through the fire of our own enthusiasm that the soul is set free.” There is much in my soul still longing to be set free. I feel the warmth of my soul as it follows the trail of what is afire with passion.

Warming the Embers,

Rev. Dr. Rita, Author and Co-Founding Director, CSL Kaua`i