Shining Light

"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 enlightened about shrinking so that other people won't feel insecure around you. We are all meant to shine, as children do. 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, Return to Love: Reflections on the Principles of "A Course in Miracles"

A friend sent this quote to me in an email a few days ago.  I think I have read through it a hundred times since.  There is something about it that resonates with me deeply.  The fear of success, my hesitance to recognize my own beauty, my hiding from my own light not only injures myself, but deprives those around me of the beauty I have to offer.

My goal is to eventually come to understand and truly believe how deserving I am, without even thinking of asking, "Who am I to be brilliant, gorgeous, talented, fabulous?"  Who am I?  I am me, and I am enough.  I have what it takes to shine brilliantly, as I was designed to do from the day I was born.  

This paragraph has so many important ideas within.  It is a very inspiring call to move past my learned behavior of self-annihilation, of abandonment of my true light.  Seeing God in my children is quite simple, and admiring the Divine within my husband is a snap.  Seeing the true light of beauty within others through personal compassion is something that is getting easier every time I do it.  The call here is to look in the mirror and see God within myself and let His light shine through me.

There is nothing wrong with admiring myself and the work that God has created within me, but it is so hard.  I spend so much time telling my children that I love and admire them, in the hopes that they will believe that they deserve to feel the same about themselves.  Again, I am reminded, the only way they will learn it is if I do it for myself. Compassion for others comes more readily than compassion for myself...but unless I have it for myself, what I have to offer others is only a partial truth.  Making myself smaller in the hopes of disappearing or raising up others serves nobody.

That is a tall order.  It makes me nervous, but it also gives me resolve.  I am a work of God with light and love to share.  I deserve every bit of light that I possess, and I deserve to believe in and continually celebrate  the worth of my own beauty and power.

I deserve BEAUTY in my life!