Surrounded but Starving

I received a long night of applause once and went back to a hotel room with nothing in my stomach. I do not mean metaphorically. I mean the specific experience of having been in a room full of people who appreciated me, and then being alone, and knowing the difference between appreciation and company.

You know the difference too.

I want to say something simple: you are allowed to be hungry. Not performing. Not curating. Not delivering value. Just a person who is hungry and who needs to sit at a table where the food is real and the conversation costs nothing.

If you cannot think of a table like that right now, that is not a verdict on you. That is a map. It shows you where the next work is.

The next chapter will not be about praise. It will be about what you have been carrying long enough.

— Job