One of the shocks of a 50th birthday is realizing the fundamental fact that your youth is irrevocably over.
As all of us are only too aware, the loud and frantic voices of the outer world easily drown out the small, still loving voice within.
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.
Love is all around us all the time. Love is the ethers that we swim in. Love is the amniotic fluid of the soul.
The first step in forgiveness is the willingness to forgive.
While women were powerfully liberated both externally as well as internally by the feminism of the 1970s, we made some serious mistakes as well.
