“The true way to render ourselves happy is to love our work and find in it our pleasure.” – Francoise de Motteville

They say that when you love what you do, it’s not really work. At least it doesn’t feel like work. Instead there is a deep satisfaction that comes from diving head first into our passions, overlooking the hours of hard work, the occasional “dirty” job, and the huge learning curves we sometimes have to navigate.

I began to think about this several weeks ago when Madie, age 8, and – a few weeks later, Bailey, age 10, attended horse camp. Both girls have loved horses…well, since forever. They chose books about horses. They like t-shirts with horses printed on them. They played “horses” while other little girls played Barbies.

They really, really claimed to love horses.

What sets these two apart from many other kids their age who also make the same claim is that they have now proven that they truly DO love horses.  While other kids love the idea of horses, these two love the horses.

They’ve proven it.

They have learned to feed the horses. (Who knew horses like peppermints?) They’ve tirelessly brushed the manes and rubbed a cool down after a ride. And while the other kids at horse camp enjoyed an hour of free play after lunch, Madie and Bailey both elected to remain behind and muck the stalls.

They really love horses.

Not just the idea. They love the reality.

As I think about my life and the things that I am passionate about, I can’t help but think about this horse camp. I think as long as I have these pictures handy, they may always serve as a reminder to me to only carefully pursue the things that are worth all the hard work to bring to reality.

I don’t want to merely love the idea of something.

I want to really, really love that something.