We are all meant to shine…
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 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 were born to make manifest the glory of God that is within us. It is not just in some of us; it is in everyone. And as we let own light shine, we unconciously give other people permission to do the same. As we are liberated from our own fear, our presence automatically liberates others.
–Marianne Williamson
December 11th, 2007 at 4:57 pm
c. ebersole, i love you. end of gush. start of comment: Marianne W asks me to be unabashedly fabulous… that my complete saturation in the non-fear of fully living can liberate others to do the same. What immediately comes into my head when I read this is loneliness…but not the bad kind… the monk kind that is all quiet and transcendent and Walden pond-y. I don’t know if I can be there yet, though. This is the gist: I can’t tell if it’s a flaw of mine or of my culture’s that, in order to fully shine, i feel like I have to retreat from being fully present in the world. Is it because I’m a girl and I am trying to live up to whatever that means? Or perhaps it’s all only a perception… perhaps that whole idea would be proven false if I really shone… Perhaps it’s the fear keeping its stronghold on me…I don’t know… Anyway, you got me thinking today…so thanks:> and thanks for letting me blog back. :>
December 12th, 2007 at 7:47 am
I think what I find most overwhelming is how we have gifts unexplored and struggle our whole lives to cultivate the few we do have. There is also so much emphasis on perfection in today’s society-to be perfect. Perfection is unattainable, and yet, everyone is so focused on obtaining it that they forget they are human and forget that the gifts they do have come from God. (perhaps that’s what is scary-that our gifts aren’t ours-but ‘loaned’ to us.)
December 19th, 2007 at 9:02 pm
I let that idea sit for a few days… the idea of struggling to cultivate the few gifts we have… how I know in a very quiet place in me that I have a myriad of gifts I haven’t cultivated… how joyful i feel when i spend time cultivating them… and just letting all of that percolate has really changed me. Why is it i struggle? why is it i allow myself to get so tired as the hours pass? I don’t need to… you are right, it’s society’s ideas of perfection that i’m comparing my life to… and really, i find i’m tired from of what hasn’t happened… not from what has… anyway… it’s changed me… I’m fully aware of how much perception bends experiences…creates experiences. wo. blog out. and merry xmas.
December 20th, 2007 at 1:12 pm
Absolutely, and sometimes even closer to home if you will, your micro-society, aka, your family, has their standards by which you should live. My family’s standards (not their moral values, which I find to be in tune with mine 99% of the time) are somewhat skewed-there’s a constant comparison between me and relatives who are my age. I’m constantly trying to remind myself I can’t, to paraphrase August Wilson (Fences), “be nobody but who [I am]”. (I love that speech from Fences. It helps me to understand myself in a way. I’ve used it for speeches I’ve delivered.)
“You can’t be nobody but who you are, Cory. That shadow wasn’t nothing but you growing into yourself. You either got to grow into it or you got to cut it down to fit you. But that’s all you got to measure yourself against the world out there. Your daddy wanted you to be everything that he wasn’t and at the same time he tried to make you into everything he was. I don’t know if he was right or wrong, but I do know he meant to do more good than harm. He wasn’t always right, though. Sometimes when he touched he bruised, sometimes when he took me into his arms he cut.”
See, our parents and family take a large hand in shaping our perceptions of ourself and sometimes their own perceptions of who we should be don’t turn out to be who we are-that makes us seem less than perfect in their eyes. I know I didn’t turn out the way my family planned. And I’ve had to help them come to grips with why I didn’t and the choices I’ve made in my life. My self-acceptance has been a real journey. Along the way, I’ve learned to step back and smell the roses and to appreciate myself and what I do have to offer. And to understand that my gifts aren’t, as I said before, “mine,” but on loan from God, and my job is to cultivate them and use them to make the world a better place.
Merry xmas-you’re highly perceptive, kate.
December 26th, 2007 at 3:20 pm
thanks:>
paradoxical, though, right?… being perceptive about perceptions… it hurts my brain a little… visions of relativity dancing…
And how amazing is that Wilson quote?! It’s what I’ve been thinking about since the c. ebersole thought train took off in my head… that idea of how liquid our spirits are… how susceptible to outer and inner tides…. But how, really, ideally, we just have to blast out the energy of ourselves and things will be all right. Even if it’s painful to do so… Beautiful idea.
Let me ask you something. In my time in theatre, I like this the best… what we’re doing… but on stage… questioning, exploring, expressing the experience of humanity then creating something new, transient… full. But I often get so discouraged at how few people want to do anything other than play the career part of the game… making money… getting the better parts… being pretty or thin. So here’s my question: how do you reconcile the artistry with the other stuff? How, when people marvel at the rarity of art and so often accept the mediocre as brilliance, can you maintain the standard that art is what theatre should be to begin with?
I guess that’s partly what I meant at the beginning… the lonely feeling I get when I read MW’s poem… Art is defined by the culture it serves, but also exists to question it… so who am I loyal to as I channel my endless MW power, the art (lonely but fulfilling) or the people I’m making the art for (unfun but lucrative)? Is that a silly question?
perhaps it’s like you say about self-acceptance… perhaps i’m not far enough along on my own journey yet to be “nobody but who [I am].” At least as far as art goes…
December 31st, 2007 at 11:00 am
Let me rephrase the self-acceptance part-I’m not there yet. I’ve just begun learning to accept myself. That, I believe, is a journey we make over the course of our lives.
As far as the stage goes-don’t be afraid to be true to yourself (Shakespeare-’To thine ownself be true’). Don’t let others’ agendas dictate how you view yourself or your craft. All you can do as an actor is put yourself into your craft and do it the best you know how.
I love your insights. Keep it up.