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 frightens us…
- Marianne Williamson
A funny thing happened last December. In the midst of the merrymaking of the holiday season, our dorm house experienced an early fireworks display. Sparks flew as the electrical post beside the dorm exploded! And then everything became dark. Then tiny spots of light popped out (thank goodness for cellular phones) as the doors flew open and everyone crowded into the dorm's small veranda.
We were a mix of college and working girls who usually stayed in our rooms and had our own universe. But this time, the girls huddled together, told stories and laughed, as we waited for the light to come back on. I wish I could have frozen the moment in a time capsule. It was just like Christmas, when everything is lighter and softer. Excuse my vivid imagination, but it really was as if the veil of darkness that fell moved us towards each other, searching for camaraderie, for something we could find in each other…but when the lights came back on, every single body in the veranda disappeared faster than a speeding bullet. And we were lodged back to our own worlds.
That's why I like what Marianne Williamson wrote:
“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 frightens us.
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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 unconsciously give other people permission to do the same.”
Sounds familiar? This was quoted in the movie Coach Carter by a young talented Mexican who at first didn't believe he could be a light to others. He found out later that he was wrong. You see, that's why the darkness brought us together (I'm referring to my experience) because we knew we could be a light, a comfort, an encouragement to one another.
It's New Year once again and yet we find that dates and numbers don't really mean anything if a change of perspective and a change of heart don't go along with it. Might this year be the time when we remember that we are light. Like the moon, we are a reflected light from our Creator. And that the darkness that we will go through as a country this year is only meant to make that light shine.
Charity Oh,
the writer who once thought so negatively, just had a “heart and mind surgery” thus, the change in perspective.
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