My personality is big. It doesn't quite want to fit into my small-ish 5'3" body. In fact, I've spent a lot of my life feeling like I was too much, and I didn't quite fit. I've been shushed a lot and have been told I'm too loud. I've been teased for making friends in bathrooms and grocery store lines. I've been called weird, and worse, embarrasing. I spent years trying to change, and become the person others wanted me to be. It didn't work, of course, and it made me miserable. So, I tried being myself for a change. "Be who you are and not who you're not." And guess what? There are lots of people out there who love me exactly as I am: loud, cheerful, ridiculously open and honest, spiritual, creative, and a little bit weird.
“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'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 are liberated from our own fear, our presence automatically liberates others.”
~ Marianne Williamson, A Return to Love
"For too many years I hid my light
Fearing I was too much or who I was just wasn’t right.
Then I heard this voice from within and up above saying
'You’re here to be a shining light and give and receive love!'"
~ Karen Drucker, ShineLabels: Karen Drucker, Lezli Goodwin, light, Marianne Williamson, quote, shine
