Unknown's avatar

window of tolerance

Inspiration

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 is nothing enlightened about shrinking
so that other people won’t feel insecure around you.

We are all meant to shine, as children do.
We are born to make manifest
the glory of God that is within us.

It is not in some of us; it is in everyone.

And as we make our own light shine,
we unconsciously give others permission to do
the same.

As we are liberated from our fear,
our presence automatically liberates others.

Marianne Williamson in “The Return to Love”

Thank you, Maia, for the correct attribution!

Unknown's avatar

what if again

How would you live then?

What if a hundred rose-breasted grosbeaks
flew in circles around your head?  What if
the mockingbird came into the house with you and
became your advisor?  What if
the bees filled your walls with honey and all
you needed to do was ask them and they would fill
the bowl?  What if the brook slid downhill just
past your bedroom window so you could listen
to it slow prayers as you fell asleep?  What if
the stars began to shout their names, or to run this way and that way above the clouds?  What if
you painted a picture of a tree, and the leaves
began to rustle, and a bird cheerfully sang
from its painted branches?  What if you suddenly saw
that the silver of water was brighter than the silver
of money?  What if you finally saw
that the sunflowers, turning toward the sun all day
and every day – who knows how, but they do it – were
more precious, more meaningful than gold?

Mary Oliver

and I’m wondering… what if
the very thing you believed in most,
that you knew in your heart all along
as the most intimate song

came and sat beside you?

Genju