Saturday, October 24, 2009

You, me and Nelson Mandela!



I have this quote up on the refrigerator. It is from Nelson Mandela's 1994 Inaugural Speech. In it he quotes Marianne Williamson. A nice thought to start each day.

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 enlightening about shrinking so
that other people won't feel insecure around you.

We are born to manifest the glory of God that is within us.

It's not just for some of us; it's 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 own fears, our presence
automatically liberates others.



So when you brush your teeth tonight, look straight into your own eyes, give yourself a big thumbs up and and declare "You ROCK baby!!" And do all you can to be all you can;-). Best wishes! Eileen

4 comments:

  1. Wonderful post, Eileen. Thank you. I am sending this on to my daughter who wonders if she is too confident for guys her own age. Imagine! :)
    D.

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  2. Eileen [&Daryl],
    as a teenager someone lent me a small book called "box of sun" it was full of collages, photographs and musings. I copied the following:
    God Bless Me
    I didn't need you to dream up,
    I came out of a dream too marvelous for your small head.
    So don't push me around.
    I am King of the kingdom of me.
    There shall be no trespassing, no hunting, no exploitation, no war
    in this land.

    I pasted it to my wall, and it reminded me to the person I am, and not the person other people decided I should be, or wanted to make me.
    I passed the book down through my sisters and it has always come up in our lives. Recently I found a copy of it, and I posted it inside my computer cabinet.
    It's good to remind myself still, that I am the King of the kingdom of me and it has so many connotations to it. I am still learning how to be a good king....

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  3. I just looked it up and the author is Joseph Pintauro, and the title is A Box of Sun, one in a series.

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  4. Daryl,
    How aweome that your daughter is so confident to even wonder if she is too confident - Hope she learns to "own it" so to speak!;-) Confidence will set her up for a lot of life's best gifts.

    Antoinette, Love the poem - I am always working to remind myself no one else can MAKE me angry, sad, or otherwise. But I really like taking it to the next step as Queen of my own kingdom. Thanks for sharing!

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