Passions

Once upon a time, when my hearing was far better than it is now, I loved filking. Although I couldn’t sing, I could write memorable filk songs. Even when I fafiated for a while, I wrote filk and SF poetry (mostly Klingon Love Poems). But once my hearing went, I stopped filking because I couldn’t be sure anymore that I was presenting the songs as I wanted them presented. I still write them, but I neither attempt to sing them or recite them anymore. They remain hidden away in my notebooks.

I’ve always been a passionate cook. I grow some of my food, wildcraft some, hunt some, and buy all the rest. I’ve created recipes that were much appreciated by others (my fruited tuna salad, the New Atlantian Potato Salad, baklava cheesecake, bacon bread, Peter Maxx bread, and a whole host of cookies). I like cooking and baking – not so much writing about it as doing it.

I like to create soft sculpture creatures – elves, fairies, trolls, goblins, orcs, mermaids, dragons, wyverns, space aliens, and blended creatures of impossible origins. I also like sewing costumes. I’m not too big on repeating patterns often. I don’t like making the same thing over and over again. My passion is more for the novel creation of new things, not mass production.

Along with sewing, I am a passionate embroiderer. I prefer crewel embroidery and mixed stitches embroidering and thread painting to the single stitch style of embroidery (needlepoint, bargello, cross-stitch etc).

I am passionate about survival – about learning how to do and make all the things I like from scratch. Sure it’s easier to just buy it already made up, but I like knowing how to make my own cooking oil, toilet paper, pie crusts, bread, crackers, pet foods, clothes, shoes, hats, tote bags, wheelbarrows, etc. If it can be made by a human, I want to know how to make it – from the very beginning. I can knap flint, make arrows (not great ones, but good enough for target practice and good enough to teach others), make bricks, lay cement, build fences, and more.

I am passionate about making little Sculpey things – hair ornaments, tree ornaments, muses, frames, dolls, book covers, etc.

I am passionate about reading and writing – mostly science fiction, but I also will read fantasy, westerns, men’s adventures, historical romances, paranormal romances, and modern fiction along with non-fiction. I write science fiction and non-fiction.

I am passionate about my religion. I write about it, debate about it, research it, celebrate it, and live my life as close to its precepts as I can.

I am passionate about my friends, but apparently in a casual hands-off sort of way. I long ago discovered I could “tap in” to how they were doing, so I always knew where they were and how they were. I don’t feel the need to actually – you know – speak to them since I already know the essentials and so I am often lax in the two-way communication part. But I really am passionate about them. I spend time tapping in and making gifts for them and sending them snippets of things I think they may like or need. When they drop in to visit, I am always thrilled to see them, but I don’t travel a lot and I rarely visit others. It’s a failing of mine I should rectify – and I probably would if they didn’t all live so far away.

That’s about it for my passions. I have a zillion interests, but these are my passions.

What are your passions?