Marianne Williamson’s A Return to Love–the book that changed my life and set me on my spiritual journey. I’ve read it at least three times and listened to it more than that. It feels like home, and I think it’s time I read it again. 

As I skim through my beat up copy, I reconnect with the words highlighted and underlined in various colors–a different color for each subsequent reading. I smile at the notes in the margins. But, I always come back to this passage because it hits me at my core and speaks to my soul: 

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, 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 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 unconsciously give other people permission to do the same. As we’re liberated from our own fear, our presence automatically liberates others.

It’s been my fear for far too long. “If we want to be rid of darkness, we must turn on a light.”