Find Your Passion

“If there is no passion in your life, then have you really lived? Find your passion, whatever it may be. Become it, and let it become you and you will find great things happen for you, to you and because of you.”

~ T. Alan Armstrong

If you have been reading any of my writing over the past year or so, you are probably well aware that I am a big mama’s boy. (Shocker!) I don’t use this as any type of derogatory statement. I simply want to bring attention to the fact that I like many other Southerners (and many of you), have been raised with strong beliefs in God, Family and Country.

I talk with my Momma and Daddy every other day and sometimes a couple times a day. [Side note: Momma and Daddy are terms of endearment for me. “No matter how big you get, you’re never too big for a momma and a daddy”. And as my Daddy still tells me to this day, “Boy, you’re never too big for me to take over my knee!”] I love my parents. I love everything they have taught me and what they have provided for me and my sister. We had a great childhood and I have fond memories of growing up with them. Learning how to water ski, how to fish, how to do chores, build things with my hands and drive Daddy’s truck. I could ramble on and on about the things they taught me and the lessons behind them.

We had Grandparents Day a few weeks back. I was thinking back on the many things I learned from my grandparents. I was thinking about many of the things I have been taught by my own parents. Things I want to pass down to my son. And lessons that he will hopefully learn as well as I have from his grandparents.

One thing that came out of many of my memories is something I have talked to you about before. It is the notion of passion in whatever you do. There is a photo I have that I cherish of my father doing what he does best (not chewing a coach out), refereeing high school football.

Daddy refereed junior high and high school football for 40 years. I have a photo in my office from his last football game on Friday, November 16, 2007, at the Mississippi Private School Association AAA State Championship Game between Jackson Academy and Jackson Prep.

Daddy refereed many games all over the state during his career. It wasn’t his fulltime job. He and “HIS crew” got paid little each game for their travels. They also got paid in concession stand hamburgers.

Every Thursday and Friday night he and “HIS football boys” would load up and travel to a high school stadium for 40 years. For 40 years he left me, my sister and my mother on Thursday and Friday nights to enjoy something he truly loved; something that he had a passion for. He enjoyed every minute of being with his fellow referees, coaches and players (the fans… not always).

I got to enjoy some of that time with him. Whenever our team wasn’t playing (or more often times than not) as our season ended early, I got to join him on his trips. In 40 years Daddy only missed a few nights to watch me play football or walk my sister on the field during homecoming festivities.

He has some pretty colorful stories about those times and when asked about many of them he just smiles. “HIS football boys” are still some of his closest friends today. Unfortunately “the crew” has broken up as time and jobs have taken them in different directions, but they still talk and stay up to date with each other’s families.

The passion that my daddy has for refereeing high school football is very much the same as the passion I have for the fire service. I got that passion from my grandfather – the original “Daddy Simp”. He was both a volunteer fire chief in Rosedale (MS) and a high school football referee.

I don’t know what Ethan will enjoy when he grows up. He likes both football and fire trucks right now, but whatever he is in to, I am sure he will do it with passion and determination, just like three generations of Simpsons before him. Whatever he does his mother and me and HIS Daddy Simp and Gin Gin and other grandparents will all support him.

I encourage you to find passion in your life. Whether it is passion in your church, your community, the arts, sports or a number of volunteer services; whatever you do invest your time and yourself in something that is meaningful and worthwhile. Help others. Serve others. Better our community. And do so with a cheerful heart! There is nothing as rewarding as serving others and giving of yourself to the betterment of your fellow man.

I’ll be praying you find your passion, and our community betters because of it!

Larkin