Or 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 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 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 unconciously give other people
permission to do the same.
As we are liberated from our own fears,
our presence automatically
liberates others.
—-Nelson Mandela
—-Inaugural Speech, 1994
Poem original author Marianne Williamson*
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