words to live by: from Marianne Williamson

I read this quote the day before I started the Camino de Santiago de Compostella. They are words I needed to hear as I was anxious about the path I was about to undertake and whether I was good enough. I carried the quote in my wallet and read it every morning before I started walking and every night as I went to bed.

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 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 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.

– A Return to Love by Marianne Williamson –