Suffering

“Your passion is what you are willing to suffer for.”  I recently heard someone say that, and I have thought about it a lot since.  I reckon there is a measure of truth in that one.
First responders at mass shootings reckon they see something a lot.  That is, a guy with himself over his wife endeavouring to protect her.  There is something innate in many guys that seeks to protect.  It is not something where it is said “oh I should” but often it is “I will.”  Their wife is their passion.
I was thinking of it in other terms too.  Often passion is seen in what I am willing to forgo.  For a runner or sports person, it can be “I will forgo the pizza for the moment in pursuit of my goal.”  So often on retiring or following a big event, competitors are asked what they will do now, and often it is to partake of something that has been out of bounds in pursuit of their goal.
It is not like it could not have been done before but a person is willing to suffer deprivation in pursuit of their goal.  The item while not taboo in itself, is incompatible with the passion.  It is one or the other – not both.
The reason I have found that so interesting is I know there are things that are not wrong in themselves, but they may be wrong for me at this time, if I want to achieve what I have in mind.
I guess there is a cost involved in anything I want to go for.  I am interested in stamp collecting.  At one stage I was doing it and determined I needed a great many leaves of different sizes.  I got them.  It cost.  The “suffering” pursuing my passion was financial.  I decided it was worth it.  I was willing to “suffer” a financial hit, as I knew achieving what I was after meant doing so.
I do not know about others, but I always thought of suffering only in terms of physical pain.  Yet to me suffering can take many forms.  It can be as complicated as gut wrenching out of the blue or seemingly as simple as making a best practice choice that takes me on a road less travelled.  It may also be the suffering of absence, or the suffering of denial.  The suffering of hurt or rejection.  The suffering of loneliness.  In many ways I have not experienced suffering -  but in many ways I have.
It is the suffering of “pursuing a dream” that right now I feel I need to bear.  The suffering of saying “no” to one thing and “yes” to another. “No” cuts many desirable possibilities but “yes” puts me on the road on which I need to go.  Passion determines if I am willing to do it.