Our Deepest Fear...

This selection has been cited countless times over the years and may not be new to some of you readers, but it's something that I always come back to during times like these. It is often mistakenly credited to Nelson Mandela as he quoted it in one of his famous speeches, but it actually belongs to Marianne Williamson from her book Return to Love. From all of us here at ANP Quarterly, here's wishing you all a 2008 full of inspiration and success.

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, whom am I
to be brilliant, gorgeous, talented and fabulous?
Actually,
who are we 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.
You were born to make manifest
the glory of God.
That is within us.
It’s not just 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.