Friday, November 04, 2005

Courage

Our deepest fear in not that we are inadequate.
Our deepest fear is that we are powerful beyond measure.
It is our light, not our darkness that frightens us.
We ask ourselves, "Who am I to be brilliant, gorgeous, talented and fabulous?"
Actually, who are we not to be?
You are a child of God.
You playing small doesn't serve the world.
There's nothing enlightened about shrinking so that other people won't feel insecure around you.
We were born to make manifest the glory of God that is within us.
It's not just in some of us, it's in everyone.
And as we let our own light shine, we unconscioulsy give other people permission to do the same.
As we are liberated from our own fears, our presence outomatically liberates others.
-Marianne Williamson (as quoted by Nelson Mandela in his inaugural speech, 1994)

3 comments:

rachel elizabeth said...

I was just reading that quote today. Thanks for the added reminder.

doxasky said...

You have brought forth a challenge with these words, but I am too afraid to face this challenge right now. So I will avoid it for now with the hope that I can face it some time in the (hopefully near) future.

Anonymous said...

The first two lines of this are ripped out of Kierkegaard's journals. Word for work. I've read them there and they are also the basis/working theme in Vanderhague's short story (I think the title is) "Soren and I" or whatever the one with the SK motif in the Man Descending anthology. But if it's from Mandela or Williamson, they're probably borrowed from the Journals straight up.