I met Susan quite serendipitously on Twitter a few years ago. She was looking for help on Twitter and I happened to see her tweet, so I jumped in. From that point on, we have developed a friendship just as purty as Susan’s roses 🙂 As it happens, Susan is a highly skilled and respected rosarian, so I think I have learned more from her than she ever could learn from me. Susan is one of the sweetest and most passionate people I know, so I hope you enjoy her answers here as much as I did!
1. How do you define “passion”?
A: Passion is a force greater than you, a calling. One morning I didn’t feel like going outside and yet I knew I ‘had to’ take a picture of ‘Legend’ because the moment would be lost if I did not. Nature is perpetually in motion and that motion and light changes everything every second. Einstein’s Theory of Relativity states that in the time it has taken to write this sentence the room around me has changed. How much more does a blossom change in a minute, an hour, a day? My passion is a compulsion.
2. What is your passion?
A: Rose growing, gardening, photographing and writing about moments in the garden and sharing it with people, often times with a sense of humor. Showing folks in pictures the beauty that surrounds us in simple pleasures. Also educating folks that if they want to grow roses they too can do it. I realize that at any given moment I may be the only witness to an event that will never come again. I feel it’s an obligation to share that moment with as many people as I can.
3. How did you know that this was a passion and not just a passing interest?
A: My Mother’s favorite flowers were peonies. They bloom first in the spring in Northern Illinois so she wanted me to apply bone meal around the peonies first and get them ready for the spring bloom. I realized roses might be my passion when I just wanted to hurry up with the peonies to get to the roses. Now I love peonies and just about everything that grows.
4. How do you make sure you follow your passion and nurture it?
A: You will know when you are following your passion because your passion whisks you along with it. A passion is a driving force, and the fuel for passion is generosity and sharing. The more you give it away the more it comes back to you and grows in ways that one cannot measure.
5. What is your advice to other people who are trying to find or follow their passion?
A: We all know children ask difficult questions and a child asked him a very difficult question. What was God doing before the creation? The Pope pondered the question and knowing that God is Love, Pope Francis said: paraphrased a bit, “God was loving. I can say to you to find your passion, love. Love persons, animals, plants, places or things and you will find your passion. Because the Pope also said “God is beauty”. Whatever name for a creator you believe in I know we can agree on that statement. Roses and the garden connect me to the creation in ways nothing else can and thereby connects me to you.
6. Anything else you want to say?
Thank-you Margie for asking me to share about my passion. The passion and generosity of spirit of Margie and in folks I have met through Margie has multiplied the love and caring I have seen in so many ways and any way that I can show people about the beauty of sharing my passion I am more than happy to do so.
Editor’s note – Susan’s very kind words were in fact unsolicited 🙂