Our Greatest Fear

Our greatest fear is not that we are inadequate.

Our greatest 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, fabulous, gorgeous, talented?
Actually, who are you not to be?

You are a child of God. You’re 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’s within us. It’s not just in some of us. It’s in everyone. And as we let our own light shine, we automatically give other people permission to do the same. As we are liberated from our own fears, our presence automatically liberates others.

:: Nelson Mandela :: 1994 Inaugural Speech ::
:: a quote from Marianne Williamson ::
:: used in coach carter ::

This entry was posted on Monday, July 16th, 2007 at 5:36 pmand is filed under . You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.

2 Responses to “Our Greatest Fear”

  • Annie Says:
    July 17th, 2007 at 7:16 am

    Makayla,

    Thank you for posting this! The line, There’s nothing enlightened about shrinking so that other people won’t feel insecure around you. speaks volumes to me right now!

    You just gave me something great to think about today.

    Thank you.

  • At Home with kim vallee Says:
    July 18th, 2007 at 11:12 am

    About that phrase quoted by annie, I would like to send it to our government board of education who keeps lowering the curriculum and passing requirements so that the less talented children do not feel bad. We hurt both the talented and the slower learners with such an attitude. Both have different needs that we must provide for. That is all!

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