Why are we more afraid of our light than our darkness?
Tonight I attended an event in St James, Piccadilly at which Marianne Williamson was speaking. For those who are not familiar with Marianne I consider her one of the best communicators on life, Newsweek wrote of her, “One of the fifty most influential baby boomers.”
It was about 18 years ago that I noticed a card with some words written on it on a colleague’s desk,
“Our deepest fear is not that we are inadequate. Our deepest fear is that we are more powerful beyond measure. It is our light, not our darkness that most frightens us.”
At that time the words were incorrectly attributed to Nelson Mandela it was only later that I became aware they were the words of Marianne.
Last August I was in New York City. One morning as I walked around the block from the hotel I came across Marble Collegiate Church and discovered it was the church that Norman Vincent Peale, the author of The Power of Positive Thinking, pastored for 50 years. I later discovered that Marianne was hosting a workshop in the Church. I didn’t get to the workshop though my interest in Marianne was lodged.
A few weeks after I returned from the US I learned that Marianne would be lecturing weekly via live stream from Marble Collegiate Church. I have been hooked ever since.
A Course in Miracles (ACIM) has made its way into my life and Marianne is probably one of the best communicators on the message of the text.
ACIM although a daunting tome does provide ‘a teaching’ on how to love instead of hate. Jesus taught it though ACIM provides current thinking on how to practice it.
Tonight I wanted to ask Marianne the question, “Why are we more afraid of light than our darkness?” I didn’t get to ask though an inner voice said, “Answer your own question.”
I think we find it easier to hate, to dislike, to reject, at least we believe we do. The world in which we live seems to promote separation, ‘them and us’ and so we chose the option that comes easiest and appears normal. Yet, we have the capacity to love, respect and accept those who hate us, harm us and may even seek to kill us. You can tell not the way of the world. Yet if we chose that power it is greater than the darkness and floods the place with light. What we struggle with are our beliefs that they don’t deserve our forgiveness, our love, and our respect.
The power is within us to choose our light or our darkness it is only our fear of being seen as weak, a fool, letting go of the hate that we feel justified in holding, that stops us.
Why should we turn on the light? Why not?
See you tomorrow, hopefully,
g.
