Hold on, friends, because here comes my New Year’s message, the thoughts of my ever-running brain, the strategy from my gut, the positive results for an otherwise mundane day or maybe, some might say, the prattle from a heart that cares – anyhoo, I have determined that without passion in your life, there is nothing.

There, I’ve said it.

But you might counter – how is there passion every day, every hour, every minute? A-ha, I am so happy you asked. Example: this morning I have gathered the garbage, cooked a pot of chili and prepared promotional items for the upcoming event, “Annual Commemoration of the Gypsy Queen’s Death & Burial.” The event is Saturday, February 4, 2pm, at Rose Hill Cemetery.

Now I absolutely testify I have a large amount of passion for the Rose Hill Cemetery Tours. If not, I would not have spent the last nearly ten years of my life promoting and organizing these events. Yes, I picked up the Rose Hill Cemetery reins (and his passion, I think) from Mr. Walton Moore, my Rose Hill Cemetery mentor.

And I admit sometimes my Rose Hill passion has perhaps run a-whack. I mean if I sense our Rose Hill Tour efforts have been diminished or our wonderful group of volunteers abated, I, well I sometimes lose my cool. I mean I don’t really like to get all cross-eyed and bent-out of-shape, but please don’t denounce our efforts teaching Meridian and Mississippi history. Someone needs to do it.

And, oh, by-the-way, Rose Hill Company received some fab news this week. We have been approved by the IRS the nonprofit status. Yes, we are now a genuine and true 501 (c) (3) organization. Lookout world, we’re on our way!

Moving forward – you might ask about my garbage-gathering-passion. Perhaps that is a stretch, but not really. I shall explain: if one should half-do-the-job, then their abode is messy and smelly, right? But if that same person conducts a thorough job, with passion, the odious duty becomes an action filled with pride. Clean house, cool trash containers (all disinfected and sparkling), I mean that is a form of passion. Try it and see.

Now to my pot of chili simmering delightfully in the crock pot, my passion, when preparing the delish meal is/was abounding with passion. You see I bought the best meat (I had the butcher ground a sirloin-tip roast), then I poured, in my opinion, the very best brand of tomatoes into the mixture, with Mexene chili power and a few extra seasonings. Later today, when partaking lunch, I will slurp my chili noisily and with a great gusto of passion.

Stay with me here – I suppose the simple way to explain my passion fetish could be my happy outlook upon the world. Not to toot my own passion-filled-horn, but I have seldom seen the “the glass half-empty” but rather, for most of my life, I have seen “the glass half-full.” Not to say I haven’t had bad days. No, there have been a few. But the way I see it, no one is going to drag me into the pit of humdrums with them. As I told someone recently, “I am a straight shooter.” I try to say what-I mean-and-mean-what-I-say. I try to walk-it-as-I-talk-it. And I haven’t always been successful, but I try.

Just a thought — passion is the answer for a satisfied life. Heck more than satisfied, but a marvelously wonderful life. Take passion with you along your life’s pathway and the days will be brighter, your world will be calmer, plus your stomach won’t hurt as much.

I must run because there is a dirty bathroom down the hall that needs a helping of my passion.

Anne McKee is a Mississippi historian, writer and storyteller. She is listed on the Mississippi Humanities Speakers Bureau and Mississippi Arts Commission’s Artist Roster. See her website: www.annmckeestoryteller.com