I want to paint this quote on my daughter’s bedroom wall, tat­too it on my forearm, and take it on as my own mantra.

Truly. Ama­zing.

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, 1992