A message to Marjory Stoneman Douglas students:
I am soooo proud of these young adults. They're fighting for gun legislation reform, and making solid progress. But what's happening simultaneously as a result cannot be summed up as easily. So, I will quote Marianne Williamson, who may have actually been quoting abolitionist Frederick Douglass (I’m not sure who first stated this), when she wrote this in her book (A Return to Love: Reflections on the Principles of a Course in Miracles):
"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 doesn’t serve the world. There’s nothing enlightened about shrinking so that other people won’t feel insecure around you. 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."
Please understand that "God" does not have to imply religious association. This is truth at the center of what makes us human, and it strikes at the very core of our insecurities that hold us back in so many ways. I implore anyone who reads this to take a moment and think about this in depth. We have been selling ourselves short for too long. Sometimes it takes a person, or group of people, with a fresh outlook on life to remind us of who we actually are, and what we are actually capable of. These students have helped remind me. I know that much.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gbJLywjLq60&t=1136s
