Authentic success is living by your own lights.

How much time, creative energy, and emotion do we expend resisting change because we assume growth must always be painful? Much personal growth is uncomfortable, but it's worse to thwart the ascent of your authenticity.

Learning to live in the present moment is part of the path of joy.

Many of us squander precious natural resources -time, creative energy, emotion- comparing our talents to those of others. Today ask Spirit to call forth your authentic gifts, so that you might know them, acknowledge them, and own them.

Start moving, a step at a time, step after step. The positive momentum will take you from there.

Before we can change anything in our life, we have to recognize that this is the way it is meant to be right now. For me, acceptance has become what I call the long sigh of the soul. It's the closed eyes in prayer, perhaps even the quiet tears. It's "all right," as in "All right, You lead, I'll follow." And it's "all right" as in "Everything is going to turn out all right." This is simply part of the journey.

Deliberately seeking solitude-quality time spent away from family and friends-may seem selfish. It is not. Solitude is as necessary for our creative spirits to develop and flourish as are sleep and food for our bodies to survive.