This came in my morning email from zaadz:

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.

There are two things about this quote. The first is that this was one of three passages my wife and I chose to be read at our wedding. We thought this quote captured wonderfully the thought of being everything you can be.

The second thought is that it is the first time I have seen it properly attributed. When we use the quote, the author was listed as unknown. As zaadz says, “The passage above is often–and mistakenly–thought to be from Nelson Mandela’s inauguration speech. It’s not. You’ll find it in [Marianne Williamson’s] book Return to Love, page 191.”

Evelyn turned me on to zaada’s daily wisdom. You may want to check it out.

P.S. I may need to find the other quote from the wedding and post them.