If you are lacking passion in your work; in your life...

You go to work everyday, you do whatever your job may require.

Filing papers, treating patients, writing books, or putting out a fire.

We fufil our obligations as doctors, librarians, social workers and teachers.

We practice our social skills when we are in sales and we practice our sermons when we are preachers.

We take all the steps of preparation to meet the demands of what our job may require.

Lesson plans, schooling, casework – but what about the demand of desire?

It seems as though we work to complete a task, we do that to complete this.

We work to accomplish a result, but we no longer work for a purpose.

Having a job is practically mandatory, having a source of income is what we need.

Getting by Monday through Friday 9-5 is the precedent that into, we feed.

We no longer work for causes, they are now replaced by companies.

There is less work found in environment awareness, and more work for cutting down trees.

We work for money, and money works for itself.

We work for benefits of our retirement fund, not benefits for our self.

We wake up every morning, but we don’t even care about where we are going.

We rip movie tickets in long lines at the theaters, but we don’t even know the movies we are showing.

In today’s world, a job is good because of its hours, its vacation time, its pay.

A job is no longer good based on how it makes us feel at the end of the day.

I have met people who just go through the motions, clock in on a machine that documents the hours 9-5.

But what we fail to recognize is we are clocking into a machine that documents are lives.

What we do on this earth is not measured by the money we receive or the taxes we pay into.

It is not measured by the companies paid vacations and from all the work-related places we have been to.

In today’s world, we strive to make a life for ourselves, but we struggle to maintain a living.

We want to take from everyone when we are on the bottom, and when we get to the top, we are not giving.

What happened to passion, what happened to playing basketball because of how happy it made you feel?

Since when is passion replaced with a contract, with a 50 million dollar contract deal?

When we were little children, we dreamed of becoming somebody, not being an occupation on a list.

When we were little children, we never dreamed of this.

We dreamt of our passion, what made us feel alive inside.

We dreamt of being someone, we longed for that pride.

One day you will look back on your past, what do you want to see?

A meaningless workweek 9-5, or the person you were destined to be?

Work without passion is like a movie without sound.

It gives you images of your life, but the meaning can’t be found.

Find what you love, and you will find what you are destined to do.

Follow your passion in your heart, and you will find… you.

Don’t go through the motions, don’t clock in to a machine that records your days.

Don’t say yes to a job offer because of how much it pays.

Listen to your calling, find something that you are meant to do.

Change the lives of others, and life will change for you.

If you wake up with passion, keep it with you all day.

Because following your dream is more than any paycheck can pay.

Doing what you believe is right for you, is better than any company’s benefit.

Paid vacations can bring you places, but happiness – it can’t bring it.

And if you think it’s too late to follow your passion, it’s not, so stop stalling.

You don’t have to search your life for meaning, you just have to find your calling.

Without passion, comes no reason for motivation, comes no validation for what you do.

Because when you deny the world your calling, you’re denying the world, you.

So every morning you wake up, give the world what you were made to give.

It’s when you live your life with passion, that you really live.

If the holidays passed by too soon...

I wrote to you when I was small, I wrote to you every year. During a time when the letter getting lost in the mail, was undoubtedly my biggest fear. I asked you for bikes and barbie’s, to fill my stocking with delicious sweets. But since then I have grown up, and I long for more than fun toys and treats. This year, I ask you for things that cannot fill a stocking – that cannot fit under a tree. This year I simply ask for others, I no longer ask for me. I hope you read my letter, Santa, in fact, I plead and insist. This one I promise is worth reading, it’s my grown up Christmas list.

1. I ask first for Christmas joy, for those who don’t celebrate it and for those who do. I ask they celebrate it the right way, the way it is intended to. I ask that gifts are given from the heart, and all around the world you can hear the giggle of a kid.  And their faces light up as they rip through the wrapping paper – they way you made mine did.

2. I ask for unconditional love, for people to remember that nothing can break true love. I ask that people can lovewith all their heart, and feel it from up above.  I ask that homes don’t get broken, and loved ones don’t separate. I ask for everyone to feel love this Christmas, and for every day after we celebrate.
3. I ask for respect, for others to not belittle each other. I ask for each child to have once experienced the unfathomable love of a mother. I ask that people treat others the right way, and the wrong way leads them astray. I ask that nobody goes unrecognized, and everyone feels special once a day.

4. I ask for compassion, I ask for people to do things from the heart. I ask for distance to diminish and for nothing good to fall apart. I ask for dreams to remain big and for no child to think there is something they can’t do. I ask that reality still seems magical, like the days I believed in you.

5. I ask for people to be safe, and to be treated right. I ask that each person be able to experience this beautiful thing called life. I ask for anyone who hinders this to be corrected and made aware, that hearts were not made to break – they were made to care.

6. I ask for all the people in this world who struggle everyday for shelter, for food, for life. I ask that they get the miracle they wish for, like the star they wished on last night.

7. I ask for each person every day to have a reason to smile. I ask for every difficult step each person has to take, that they are rewarded a beautiful mile. I ask that each person is grateful for the people they hold close.  And that nobody fails to express their love to the ones they do the most.

8. I ask for rainbows after rainstorms, the economy to rise, and the unemployment rate to decline. I ask for people who are seeking change, to be able to mutter to themselves, “I’m trying.”

9. I ask for people to believe again, to believe in something bigger than our selves. I ask for people to remain faithful, and not put their hopes up on the shelves. I ask that people can believe in miracles, that people can know there is more than this, like the Christmas Eve’s I lie awake, hoping someone would grant my wish.

10.I ask for people to remember that this holiday is not to be about self. This holiday is about magic, about love between others and cures to sickened health. This holiday is meant for people to pay attention to one another, not pay for a brand new toy. Christmas is a time to feel loved and to embrace every little joy. Finally Santa, I ask for people to read this and at the end, think to themselves and wish. “Christmas is not about presents or good food, it’s about writing your own grown up Christmas list.”


I wish you a merry Christmas and a wishful new year.
Nicole Kendall, 2011

If you're sick of being so kind...

i turn my cheek and i bite my tongue, i don't hang the picture because the picture is already hung. i don't talk back when you minimize me and cuss, why would i be a fool when you're a big enough for the both of us? you make a scene, and i make a run for the door, i stay silent in hopes you won't do it anymore. you treat me like your slave, i bow to you, your highness, and you can kill me with your words but i can kill you with my kindness. see i don't have to retaliate to make my place known, me biting my tongue is proof enough on it's own. some may say it's sad how i make myself your doormat, but in my opinion, i am far from that. see, look at me, i can prove a point with my two lips pressed together, so the unspoken words can get back to me the day after never.

If you don't believe them when they say you are beautiful...

you lean over and tell me you love me, only i cannot believe, you tell me my mirror must be broken because it is distorted what i see. you tell me i am perfect and right there i call your bluff, how can i have it all when i don't even have enough? your words are so amusing, they honestly make me laugh, you ask for my heart but i hesitate because all i have left is half. i can't love you to capacity because capacity is far too vast, so please do not rush me, i'm not ready to go this fast. people come in and out of my life at a speed too fast to keep, so don't blame me for holding back because you don't want to see me deep. you tell me again i'm beautiful, i cry because i can, i wish i could see myself the way you say i am. i'd love to love myself, i'd love to be okay, i'd love to take my insecurities - like my lunch - and throw them away. i try to think i'm beautiful, but yet, here i remain myself, words are hidden, insecurities are formed and my thoughts are on a shelf.