
Affectionately known as "America's #1 Success Coach," Jack Canfield is the originator of the Chicken Soup for the Soul series and a leading authority in the areas of self-esteem, achievement motivation, and peak performance. [www.jackcanfield.com]

Arianna Huffington is the co-founder and Editor in Chief of the Huffington Post and the author of twelve books. [www.huffingtonpost.com]

Seth Godin is a prominent author, blogger and speaker. [www.squidoo.com/linchpin]

Krishna Kaur is the founder of YOGA for Youth, a program that takes yoga, meditation, and stimulating discussions on the philosophy of yoga to urban youth. [www.yogaforyouth.org]

Norman Lear has enjoyed a long career in television and film. He is also a political and social activist and philanthropist. [www.normanlear.com]

Leilani Münter is a professional race car driver and an environmental activist who uses her voice in the number one spectator sport in America as a catalyst for change. [www.leilanimunter.com]

By going undercover to meet slaves and slaveholders, Kevin Bales exposed modern slavery's penetration into the global economy. He co-founded Free the Slaves, which has helped to liberate thousands of slaves. [www.freetheslaves.net]

Sophie Chiche, lifebyme.com founder and curator, enjoys asking deep questions and living a life of meaning. Today she's launching Shape House, an urban sweat lodge, a place to melt away fears and fat. [www.shapehousela.com]

Entrepreneur and writer Mastin Kipp founded TheDailyLove.com, which merges pop culture with inspiration, and co-founded The Love Yourself Company, an apparel company that has started a global self-esteem movement. [www.TheDailyLove.com]

Liz Phair is an American singer-songwriter and guitarist. [www.lizphair.com]

Archbishop Desmond Tutu is Chairman of The Elders, a group of world leaders who address some of the world's most pressing problems. He works energetically for human-rights and in his ministry. [www.tutu.org]

Zainab Salbi is the founder and CEO of Women for Women International, a group dedicated to helping women survivors of war rebuild their lives. [www.womenforwomen.org]

Despite his physical challenges, Sean Stephenson has taken a stand for a quality of life that has inspired millions of people around the world. He's a professional speaker, psychotherapist, and author. [www.timetostand.com]

Kia Miller teaches Yoga at Yoga Works in Los Angeles, leads teacher trainings, and runs retreats and workshops on meditation, chakras, pranayam, and mantras, and other practices. [www.kiamiller.com]

Simon Mainwaring is an ex-Nike/Wieden creative, former Worldwide Creative Director at Motorola/Ogilvy, branding/advertising writer, author/speaker/blogger, Australian, idea geek. [www.simonmainwaring.com]

Shannon Bindler is a style editor, life coach, and the co-founder of Get Up Girl, an empowerment company that inspires women to shine. [www.getupgirl.com]

Grammy-nominated art director/designer/photographer Mathieu Bitton has designed over 450 CDs and movie posters. He's a renowned collector of and authority on black films and their soundtracks. [www.candytangerine.com]

Opus Reps founder and agent-producer Jorge Perez travels the world producing photo shoots with great photographers and celebrities. He's also very involved with Meals on Wheels in Los Angeles. www.opusreps.com
home

I am like Dorothy searching for her home.
The search has brought lessons I would not otherwise have had, and has taken me to places I could have never imagined … from a tiny room in an apartment to a suburban home in a cul-de-sac to a small town in Minnesota to a little yellow rental outside of Los Angeles, which is where I live now. Gazing out the window at my neighbor’s yard every day I see their Texas wind chime (beer cans attached to a red, white, and blue slab of wood hanging from a tree branch) and I couldn’t feel further away from home.
And yet, finally, amid all of this searching, I am satisfied within the search itself. So often, instead of paying attention within the journey, we focus on the destination. We want the final result. We want security. Safety. Something concrete. Home.
That’s why I want home, a place I can settle into and expand within, like a butterfly. But sometimes we have to do this without the perfect external place. We have to find and make a home within. As I’ve traveled from home to home, each place has served as sandpaper, rubbing away my rough edges and humbling my steps, taking me deeper within.
During the course of my home-finding journey, I’ve noticed a more authentic self arise. I’ve left security for the unknown. I now prefer risks rather than control. I beg love to enter instead of fear, and I find internal abundance in the midst of external lack and discomfort. My strides are more natural and less conformed. I’ve acquired a faith which makes me sing before the dawn. And the victim? She disappeared as I owned a way that’s for better or worse. I now witness a grace and comfort within myself, more than any home could provide.
Glinda has arrived to say that I’ve had the power to go home all the while. When I choose to believe her, I go home to the soul, where everything we need resides. We’re all on a soul-guided journey. All the soul asks is that we engage in its journey and become conscious participants. The soul is a place of comfort and solace, like any good home. My search for home is what has brought meaning and depth (and sometimes humor, if I dare to laugh) to my life.
– Nikki Di Virgilio


Explore More Meaning
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genius finder. de-compartmentalizer. mind-heart mixer.
Gina Rudan is an author, thought leader, and the president of Genuine Insights Inc., a contemporary professional development and training practice with the mission of leveraging the genius within every individual and organization. [www.genuineinsights.com]
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