My Greatest Fear

So as terrific as Tuesday is today is a good one or has started out that way. Somewhere in the deep recesses of my mind a wall post from a friend of mine came to mind. A brief search lead me to attribute the wonderful piece to Marianne Williamson. It is an excerpt from her book A Return to Love. In case you have never read it, it reads:

“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.”

Pondering the words that I could remember at the time of driving to work this morning something insightful occured to me. For some of us (myself included) our deepest fear is that we live a life of mediocrity and fail to realize our true potential. This may be the cause of the famed mid life crisis phenomenon that millions go through around their late thirty’s to mid forty’s. It is said to be a time that we make absurd changes to our lives as we realize that our youthful exuberance is slipping away slowly but surely.

Which brings us to the here and now (I’ve got a couple years to go before I hit my midlife and I’ve already begun to plan for it). In all honesty my greatest fear is living a life of mediocrity. For some of us we are bombarded with the status quo of being educated, getting a good job and starting a family.

For some that might be all she wrote but for others that plan might lack zest and a certain level of theatrical enthusiasm. Some may be content with the 9-5 minimum wage while others may take the stage, while others take to politics with an agenda to save the world (while filling their pockets) and make it more comfortable for all (or the world 1%).
Needless to say that it would take me as well as anyone else an entire lifetime to tell you how to live a life full of meaning.

Millions of books, DVD’s, TV Shows, lectures, and papers have been published on this topic. It would be unintelligent of me to attempt to answer this question with one blog post and I dare not try. But I will say this; life is an amazing thing and for everyday you're alive and well make the best of it. We all know the cliché sayings “break the rules, kiss slowly, and forgive quickly” and the list could go on and on for light years to come. But after all is said and done one thing is certain…Life goes on. And as it goes on so should you.

For some we may never attain the finer things in life but that does not mean that we cannot be happy. We may all have come across the saying that we should not settle for less than what we deserve or we would be deserving of what we settle for (loosely paraphrased).

And that my friend is the crux of the matter. Be empowered and live the life that brings you the greatest amounts of happiness and meaning.