I wondered who I’d be without my fame. Who would I be if I said things that people didn’t want to hear, or if I defied their expectations of me? What if I showed up to the party without my Mardi Gras bat mask and refused to flash my breasts for a hand full of beads? I’ll give you a moment to wipe that image out your mind.

When I was about 28, after a decade as a professional comedian, I realized one night in L.A. that the purpose of my life had always been to free people from concern, just like my dad. When I realized this, I dubbed my new devotion the Church of Freedom From Concern, the Church of FFC.

I dedicated myself to that ministry. What’s yours? How will you serve the World? What did they need that your talent can provide? That’s all you have to figure out. As somebody who’s done what you’re about to go and do, I can tell you from experience the affect you have on others is the most valuable currency there is.

Everything you gain in life will rock and fall apart, and all that will be left of you is what was in your heart. My choosing to free people from concern got me to the top of a mountain. Look where I am. Look what I get to do. Everywhere I go … I’m going to get emotional because when I tap into this it really is extraordinary to me. I did something that made people present their best selves to me wherever I go. I am at the top of the mountain, and I was. The only one I hadn’t freed was myself. That’s when my search for identity depend.

You can join the game, fight the wars, play with form all you want. To find real peace, you have to let the armor go. Your need for acceptance can make you invisible in this World. Don’t let anything stand in the way of the light that shines through this form.

Now, fear is going to be a player in your life but you get to decide how much. You can spend your whole life imagining ghosts, worrying about the pathway to the future. All there will ever be is what’s happening here and the decisions we make in this moment which are based in either Love or fear. So many of us choose our path out of fear disguised as practicality.

What we really want seems impossibly out of reach and ridiculous to expect so we never dare to ask the universe for it. I’m saying I’m the proof that you can ask the universe for it. Please. I learned many great lessons from my father, not the least of which was that you can fail at what you don’t want so you might as well take a chance on doing what you love.