Briefly: It’s when my ego is quiet that I lose my fears of going my own way

There are times, especially late at night — when all is silent except for the beating of my own heart — when I feel my ego become so calm that I feel neither ambition nor fear. In those moments, I know without doubt that I can become successful making the art I need to make. It’s the rest of the day — when I’m surrounded by other people’s voices — that I end up filled with hidden fears that no one will love me if I take chances, when I doubt myself enough to run from the things I feel compelled to do. Quieting the ego and tuning my spirit to something which Carl Jung might have called Collective Unconscious are my best ways to stay on the path toward making the dent in the Universe which I was put here to make. This is what I was getting at in the piece I wrote a few days ago about my need to be a star. As odd as it might sound, that’s faith talking, not ego.