I had ambitions once to be a great writer and that singular goal got diluted by a great fear. I was living in San Francisco when fear became my mode of operation. I feared I would never be a writer. I feared I would never have what everyone else was enjoying. I feared I would never have children. I feared my notion of success was as a lover said about me, “your dreams are too small.” I feared what I loved was unloveable. I feared so much that I gave up my ghost and sought comfort from other people’s notions of how my life should be lived. I lost my own definition of success and wove the definition of others around me so tight it became my shroud, and it was only on my funeral pyre that those cloths burned before I disintegrated. <\/p>\n
I am thankful to have my vision back of what success is and what living is. I’m on my knees with gratitude. <\/p>\n
To laugh often and much;
\nTo win the respect of intelligent people and the affection of children;
\nTo earn the appreciation of honest critics and endure the betrayal of false friends;
\nTo appreciate beauty, to find the best in others;
\nTo leave the world a bit better, whether by a healthy child, a garden patch or a redeemed social condition;
\nTo know even one life has breathed easier because you have lived.
\nThis is to have succeeded.<\/p>\nRalph Waldo Emerson (1803 – 1882)<\/p><\/blockquote>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
I had ambitions once to be a great writer and that singular goal got diluted by a great fear. I was living in San Francisco when fear became my mode of operation. I feared I would never be a writer. I feared I would never have what everyone else was enjoying. I feared I would never have children. I feared my notion of success was as a lover said about me, “your dreams are too… <\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"nf_dc_page":"","_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-18103","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-main"],"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p1kHSD-4HZ","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.dangermond.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/18103","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.dangermond.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.dangermond.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.dangermond.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.dangermond.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=18103"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"http:\/\/www.dangermond.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/18103\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":18106,"href":"http:\/\/www.dangermond.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/18103\/revisions\/18106"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.dangermond.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=18103"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.dangermond.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=18103"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.dangermond.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=18103"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}