Blog #564: Dancing on the Venice Beach Pier

So here’s the scoop on me following sports.
I haven’t for 30 years.

Except for…

The Connecticut Huskies
College Women’s Basketball Team.

No other sporting event or team do I watch…or get caught up following.

The Super Bowl? No big deal.
The World Series? Haven’t seen a game in a zillion years.
The World Cup? Nope.

None of it.

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Please know, however…

I’ve been competitive and athletic my whole life. I even played Division 1 College Golf at the University of California at Berkeley. As a kid and into my teens, I could spit out facts about everything…”SPORTS.”

But things have changed.

I just can’t get into following them anymore.

Now…

I’d rather be hiking through nature and climbing up mountains than watching or rooting for anything to do with college and professional sports.

Except for (again)…

Connecticut Huskies College Women’s Basketball.

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I know statistics on all the UConn players and team.

I have a brilliant friend I met from this blog who’s a Professor Emeritus in Engineering from the University of Connecticut. He, too, is a huge Women Huskies fan. John is extra kind and forwards me the (almost) daily blurbs he receives from the subscribed team info about the players, coaches and season.

I soak each article in.

For someone who isn’t into following sports, I breathe and bleed Huskies Blue when it comes to the women’s basketball team.

It’s a little strange really.

I have zero ties to the east coast, the university, the team…none of it. I’m not even sure what prompted me to first read about them. I just started liking them…and my “like” just kept growing.

Often, what we end up liking most finds us first.

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This season…

I’m recording all the televised games the Huskies play. BUT the thing is, I only watch the games AFTER I know they’ve WON. It’s just way too passionately intense for me to watch otherwise.

This past Sunday was an EXTRA intense game.

It was the first time this year the Women Huskies have significantly trailed…down by 11 points in the middle of the 3rd quarter.

And so there I was…

Sitting at the end of the Venice Beach Pier…my eyes normally turned to the ocean…but on THIS day, I was fully engaged with looking down at my phone every thirty seconds to get the updated score.

AND…

UConn won!

I then started dancing a (no-doubt) interestingly strange victory dance.

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I was…

The animated dude at the end of the Venice Beach Pier…dancing. But truthfully, in Venice, California…no one cares too much when you dance alone because I suppose if you’re not being somewhat ODD in Venice…you might be seen as ODD.

After my one-man dance celebration concluded… I skipped home.

So I could watch the game on TV.

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P-A-S-S-I-O-N.

Deep, heart-soaking, joyous passion.

Is there any more feel-amazing and powerful way to live?

Living and doing things we’re passionate about?

I’ve discovered it makes life feel like an awesome privileged pleasure.

Passion.

It’s when our heart smiles extra hard and our brain is on fire with endorphin release. When that happens, we pour our souls into what we’re doing…and life miraculously turns into a magical love affair between it…and us.

Living with passion is the most powerful, pure motivator I know.

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I know people who are passionate about…

Dancing, yoga and theater.

Volunteering, church and music.

Hiking, skateboarding and photography.

Family, gardening and travel.

The list of possibilities is 10,000 items long.

I just did a quick count of my personal Passion List…things I passionately love doing and living…and came up with ten things in 30 seconds.

I believe my Passion List is life’s gift to me for being here.

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Feel like your life is emotionally dragging?

Go back to living your passions.

Know your Passion List.

Breathe your Passion List.

Live your Passion List.

And if you DO…

You just might find yourself extra inspired to do a little dancing celebration. And if so, rest assured there’s one guy at the end of the Venice Beach Pier passionately dancing with you.