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
Does not 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 that is within us.

It’s not just in some of us;
It’s 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.

– Marianne Williamson

* * * * *

I recently had a transcendent experience where I caught a glimpse of the expansive and connected nature of reality. It was not the first such experience I’ve had that transported me beyond the mundane, but it might have been the most powerful (at least so far). Words are pretty inadequate to the task of describing such things, but I’m going to try anyway. I was out among the stars, but not like I was an astronaut. It was more like I was part of the same reality as the stars. There was a sense of being both observer and participant, an individual and part of the interconnected, interwoven whole. Any sense of separateness fell away. And there was an awareness that I am so much more than the “me” which is contained in this flesh and blood vessel I call my body. All of this was completely devoid of any “I’m big so therefore I am better” thoughts. I am vast and expansive in the same way that everyone one and everything thing is vast and expansive. It is baked in to the very essence of who we are. 

For more years than I can count I have lived with a nagging and persistent sense of inadequacy. I never quite believed that I was worthy, and the fear of being found out as a fraud was never far from the surface. But this recent experience of vastness, coupled with other similar experiences over the past year or so, is helping me to let go of such false and unhelpful thinking. The message I received last year is being amplified and emphasized: “God is polishing your heart because your heart is worth polishing!” I am a part of an amazing Universe that is limitless and beautiful beyond description. And so are you! My intention is to stop arguing with that reality. As I said in one of my recently composed haikus:

opening my heart
I step into Mystery
with wild abandon