fortitude

 

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. 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 were born to make manifest the glory of God that is within us. It is not just in some of us; it is 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.”
~Nelson Mandela

 

Quite possibly there is no other quote more significant to me personally than the above. I cannot read it out loud without getting a catch in my throat at some point, and very often it moves me to tears. Because while my mind can embrace these words fully and know the powerful truth in them, I’ve struggled my entire life with feelings of inadequacy, fearful of that which is brilliant inside me, and shrinking so that others would not feel insecure……..seeing it all the while as noble.

So I remind myself of this quote often, hoping that one day these will not only be pretty words that I let my mind play with and contemplate, but a firmly entrenched attitude that reaches the center of my soul. Only then will I be truly liberated.

 

~Cynthia