My sole passion now is Maldives' environment

I had an epiphany yesterday while chatting with one of my Maldivian female friends.

It has to do with my realization months ago that I have lost my "passion" for everything - or so it seems.

Hence, over the past months I have been trying to identify what exactly are my passions, and if such exists, how or why they are different from my "interests".

In February, I came to the conclusion that my involvement in writing, journalism, and blogging are also not necessarily passions but great interests that serve as a means of a personal need to express myself and share my thoughts and feelings with others.

Day before yesterday I was chatting with one of my Maldivian male friends, the topic again been about my having lost interest - over the years - in a lot of hobbies and pastimes as well, which again, I have to say, are not exactly passions.

I would describe them as "simple pleasures of life" which were of great interest to me in earlier times. For instance, watching "Mission Impossible" (the first part) when it was screened from a laser disc (LD) with 5.1 surround sound at Olympus Theatre in Male'. Or listening to Coldplay's "The Hardest Part" (my all-time favorite song) through my Aiwa 2.1 surround speakers.

I don't know exactly when it started happening - and by that I mean losing interest in things - but I think it was a gradual process. At first I started noticing that I had a backlog of books to read and movies to watch, when, in contrast, in earlier times, I would devour them as soon as I got them.

Now I engage in literature, movies, music, etc. not out of any great interest but to absorb information and get entertained during my free time away from professional work.

As for losing my passion, presumably for everything, I don't really know the exact cause of that but I am not too worried about it. I do wonder, though, whether this is the result of a possible midlife crisis.

So while chatting with my friend yesterday, it hit me suddenly that she chooses to travel out of Male' as often as possible whenever her son gets school holidays, and I realized that I still have a single passion that I have not lost yet: the immense pleasure I get from enjoying the beautiful and serene ambience of our paradisiacal Maldives' islands.

I realized that I could spend hours just sitting and relaxing on a joali or swing under the shade of a hirundhu or dhiggaa tree, gazing at the tranquil blue lagoon, and taking delight from the feeling of the gentle cool sea breeze on my skin.

The friend inquired whether I lost my passion for a lot of things because I spent several years involved in those things and consequently their novelty disappeared. But that can't be the case: there are many friends, including artists, musicians, and book lovers, etc., who are still passionate about those things even if they have spent many decades involved in those things.

I don't know the cause of what results in a passion but I am now truly happy to finally realize that I have at least one surviving passion: our Maldives' natural environment.

Needless to say, while some Maldivians do harm the environment unintentionally or not, I personally am aware that there are a lot of people, both Maldivians and foreigners, who are passionately concerned about protection, preservation, and conservation of our beloved Maldives' ecology, biodiversity, and natural ecosystems.

When I yesterday chatted with another Maldivian male friend of mine, and told him about this epiphany of mine concerning my long-lasting passion for the Maldives' environment, he said something that couldn't have been more true: "I believe staying in touch with Nature makes you feel more alive".