My greatest fear is not that I am inadequate,
but that I am powerful beyond measure.It is my light, not my darkness, that frightens me.
I ask myself,
Who am I to be brilliant, gorgeous, handsome, talented and fabulous?Actually, who am I not to be?
I am a child of God.My playing small does not serve the world.
There is nothing enlightened about shrinking so that other people won’t feel insecure around me.
I was born to make manifest the glory of God within me.
It is not just in some, it is in everyone.And, as I let my own light shine,
I unconsciously give other people permission to do the same.As I am liberated from my fear, my presence automatically liberates others.
- Marianne Williamson
I love this. It was in the movie Little Miss Sunshine & it’s been coming up in conversations around me more & more lately, so I thought I’d share it with all of you. Some people may prefer saying ‘Spirit’, ‘Source’ or ‘Higher Power’, instead of God… whatever works for you. Regardless, the message is beautiful.
The passage above is the one she converted into ‘I’ statements. Here’s the original one from her book:
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 and fabulous?Actually, who are you not to be?
You are a child of God.
Your playing small does not 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 unconsciously give other people
permission to do the same.As we are liberated from our own fear,
Our presence automatically liberates others.- Marianne Williamson
Note: Many have been led to believe this is a quote from Nelson Mandela, because he once used this in a speech, but in fact it originated in Marianne Williamson’s 1992 book A Return To Love: Reflections on the Principles of “A Course in Miracles”.
