Something More

Ralph Waldo Emerson believed that no one could be considered a success until they had survived the betrayal of someone they loved and trusted.

I disagree. I think authentic success is something much, much more: survivng the betrayal of someone you loathed and tormented. Yourself.

By now you realize that Something More is not money, or fame, a home featured in Architectural Digest, or a love affair with a movie star.

Something More is repose of the soul. Something More is self-worth.

Something More is self-knowledge. The knowledge that your passion is holy and that the only way you'll be able to live authentically is to be true to your passions.

But the only way you or I can be true to our passions is to swear never, ever to betray ourselves again.

Because Something More is the certainty that no one in the world can betray me except me.

Living Something More will require corageous choices every day, and our ability to make choices is inextricably linked to our self-worth. Do I deserve to be happy? Damn right I do. Am I ever going to be unhappy again? Not if I can help it.

You have to know what you need and want out of life before you canmake the choices necessary to honor them. Your authentice needs and wants are encoded in those dreams, in the trace memory of your deepest longings. Keep shoveling away the dung of the world's disbelief as you uncover the shards of purpose, pease and pleasure that bring you joy.

Something More is caring, communion, companionship, connection, commitment. Something More is the giving and receiving of uncoditional love. For at the end of the day, or at the end of a life, all we truly have is ourselves and love. And if we love our selves -- truly, madly and deeply -- all we have is all we'll ever need.

For the sake of all that is holy, believer that you deserve nothing less than Something More.