Day 5: My Favorite Quote

Several years ago, my friend Paris sent me the following quote written originally by Marianne Wilkinson and then made famous by Nelson Mandela in his 1994 inauguration speech.

“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!
Our playing small does not save the world.

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

You are born to make manifest to the glory of God that is within us;
It is not just in some of us; it is in everyone.

And as we let our own light shine,
we unconsciously give other’s permission to do the same.

As we are liberated from our own fears,
our presence automatically liberates others.”


I am tearing up even now as I read this. While I was in college, I connected with the following quote from George Bernard Shaw: "Life is not about finding yourself, but creating yourself." At the time, I thought that it was so true but as my life has gone on, I think that it is only partially true. We can create whoever we want to be, but there truly is a core essence of who we are. And as we go through life, it can become dimmed and obscured by outside voices and pressures to be like someone else and so life is trying to uncover who we are. This Marianne Wilkinson quote replaced the Shaw quote because I feel that it better encompasses what I have learned- and am still learning- along my journey of life.