From “Embracing Your Second Calling: Find Passion and Purpose for the Rest of Your Life” by Dale Hanson Bourke
One other growing realization is that I did not always understand the nature of passion. I tended to confuse it with the adrenaline high that comes from frenetic activity. I like to be busy, to be needed, to have too much to do. I like to operate in a slightly manic state. For too long, I associated that high with passion. But I was wrong. That kind of passion burns out quickly and needs to be replaced. It is not the kind of passion God calls us to, and it is rarely the kind associated with his purpose. Now when I feel pulled into an activity that generates that type of excitement, I know to stop and ask hard questions.
Whenever I have the chance, I try to encourage younger women to live fully in the season they are in. It seems to me, the younger generation has watched women of my age and realized we made plenty of mistakes. More of them seem to be choosing to do less and to do that well. I try to applaud that tendency whenever I see it. “There is plenty of time,” I like to tell younger women. “You don’t have to do it all.”
No matter what our age, we can learn that same lesson. We don’t have to do it all; we just have to focus on what really counts.