Shine

“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 doesn’t serve the world. There’s nothing enlightened about shrinking so that other people won’t feel insecure around you. We are all meant to shine, as children do. We are 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

A New Path

I first heard this quote read by a speaker sharing her experience, strength, and hope for a group of people who had gathered to help celebrate a number of years of sobriety with her.  She attributed it to Nelson Mandela – because he quoted it in his inaugural address – and I heard it.  However, when I went looking for the quote I found Marianne Williamson and I felt I had struck gold!

I was at a cross roads in my life, having just decided to leave seminary without completing my degree and focus instead on the healing of my heart and family after the end of my 9 year marraige.  I was newly re-sober myself and was struggling to find my way to a truly authentic EXPERIENCE of God.  I had learned that thinking about God was not enough, writing about God was not enough, telling OTHER PEOPLE about God was not enough – that for my world to change I had to actually open my life to the power and presence which I claimed so very readily for others.  The next few years were an amazing journey of healing and discovery and Marianne Williamson was my spiritual mentor when there were few others I trusted.

The Way Home

There is no telling why one voice speaks to us when another doesn’t.  All I knew was that her writing touched me in a way that other authors hadn’t.  She articulated a sense of the Divine that was immediate and practical in a way that I was hungry for.  When I read her book A Return To Love, which explains the principles of A Course in Miracles, the spiritual tuning fork inside resonated frequently.  She was writing things I had always believed and never said out loud.  Her honesty gave me permission to explore things I thought I knew and to discover that I was so wrong about what I thought I knew about those things.  Her ideas and courage game me the strength to venture into the dark places within me and discover that at my core was a light that had NEVER gone out – that at my heart was an innocence that had NEVER been relinquished.  Her simple truths powerfully spoken opened the door to A Course in Miracles and allowed me to walk through the lessons and encounter the errors in my thinking that had kept me trapped and in pain for so many years.

Now, 8 years later, I am the product of a new set of perceptions.  I shine because it’s Who I Am.  I shine because I believe that the more fully I am Who I Am the more I encourage the people around me to do the same.  I shine because there is freedom in being me!  I shine because I can’t not shine.    Please allow yourself to shine.  Whoever you are, where ever you are on the path, take the next step… there is abundance and joy and delight within you!  Reach for it, embrace it, and then share it.  That’s what life is all about!