By the time you read this, you'll probably have learned, shared or become annoyed with my various enthusiasms. (At the moment, for example, I am reading everything that has been translated into English from the Brazilian writer, Clarice Lispector.)
En-thu-siasm is one of those wonderful words that contains so much in five syllables: God-filled or possessed by God. En/inside; Theo/God; asm,ism/state of, condition of.
Something for which we are enthusiastic is then something in which we find God, which is God-filled.
But how do we distinguish among fantasies, addictions and enthusiasms? I'm not sure that's something the brain can always figure out; I think you need your heart to truly understand. (This brain thing can be awfully greedy and rationalize an awful lot of things that are NOT good for your heart.)
When I was in Argentina, I was impressed with how many people there express their passions publicly. (Here in the U.S. we tend to hold them in and sometimes that causes them to get twisted up a bit.) Finding our En-thu-siasms is about going out and looking for God in the world and sometimes you can find it in the sculpture in a cemetery for a loved one who has passed:
Or in a dance, like the tango (because in Argentina they literally have footsteps built into the sidewalk.)
Or in the artwork painted on buildings on the street.
Clarice Lispector wrote:
"The world's continual breathing is what we hear and call silence."
So listen close.
The way you listen to your mother's heartbeat right now. That is how we live in God.
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