Our Greatest Fear by Marianne Williamson

After I attended The Breakthrough Seminar with John Demartini in June last year, I received the part of a speech in the mail.

From the first time I read it, I loved it! I laminated it an pinned it up in my bathroom, where I have read it several times a day since.

And although I read it so often, I never really FELT what it meant until now.

My point is, there is a difference between reading something and truly feeling something. There's a saying that goes "To know and not to do is not yet to know."

I have always known what this speech means to say, I cognitively processed the words and I understood what they meant. But only know do I really FEEL what this speech means, because I practice what it preaches. I know do, therefore I know.

Here is the speech, as delivered by Nelson Mandela at his inauguration in 1994, originally written by author Marianne Williamson in 1992.

Our Greatest Fear

Our greatest fear is not that we are inadequate,
but 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, handsome, talented and 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 within us.
It is not just in some; it is in everyone.

And, as we let our own light shine, we consciously give
other people permission to do the same.
As we are liberated from our fear,
our presence automatically liberates others.