Today's Quotation:

Our deepest fear is not that we are inadequate.
Our deepest fear is that we are powerful beyond measure.
It is our Light, not our Darkness, that most frightens us.
We ask ourselves, who am I to be brilliant, gorgeous, talented, fabulous?
Actually, who are you NOT to be?
You are a child of God. Your playing small does not serve the world.
There is nothing enlightening about shrinking so that other people
won't feel unsure around you.
We were born to make manifest the glory of God that is within us.
It is not just in some of us; it is in everyone.
As we let our own Light shine, we unconsciously give
other people permission to do the same.
As we are liberated from our own fear,
our presence automatically liberates others.

Marianne Williamson
(often attributed to Nelson Mandela, 
who used it in his 1994 inaugural address)

Today's Meditation:

This can be one of the hardest ideas in the world to accept and to live.  I am a light of the world.  The light that is within me can shine to help others to find their own light.  Wow.  We tend to see the light in other people who have become leaders and who do wonderful things on a worldwide level, who publish books on self-help and who lead seminars and who become pastors and teachers and motivational speakers.

But my "playing small does not serve the world."  What an incredible thought that is:  that I am serving the world just by being who I truly am, not the person I pretend to be because I think I should be modest or unassuming.  My ideas are valuable, my insights can help other people, my presence can make another human being feel secure enough so that he or she can step out and take a risk and possibly do something that he or she never before has done.

This fear that we have of being different, of other people mocking us or putting us down because we are different--this fear not only holds us back, but also holds back the people who could find in us the example that they need to make something more of themselves, to accept themselves more, to be happy and to start to lead fulfilling, loving lives.

If you let your light shine, others will see it.  Not everyone will react as they should, but that's their fear reacting, and it's not a reflection of who you are.  Others whom you may never know will see that light, and when they see your courage in letting it shine brightly, your light can spark the courage in them.

Questions to ponder:

1.  Does light have any effect when it's covered up
and not allowed to shine?
Do you cover your light up so that others can't always see it?  How?

2.  What would this world be like if everyone allowed their inner light to shine without thinking about the fears that tend to keep it hidden?

3.  Do you play small?  Does this help other people?

Fear can infect us early in life until eventually it cuts a deep groove of apprehension in all our thinking.  To counteract it, let faith, hope and courage enter your thinking.
Fear is strong, but faith is stronger yet.

Norman Vincent Peale

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