A difference in wording

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The past exists only in our minds. The accomplished is last.

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"The master was full of praise. ‘Well done, my good and faithful servant.""

Fear

Our deepest fear-- deepest--
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.

When we pass the fears of failure, the fears of losing, the fears of loss, when we pass the fears of finding weaknesses, of revealing inadequacies--

Under these fears we come to a deeper fear, the fear which, even once we've dug to the bottom of all our fears, keeps us from living.

We ask ourselves, "Who am I,
anyway,
to be brilliant, gorgeous, talented, fabulous?"

Beneath all our fears is a flawed sense of worth. A flawed sense of worth backs all
our fears.

Who are you? You are a child of God. Who are you not to be brilliant, gorgeous, talented, or fabulous? Your playing small does not serve the world. There is nothing enlightened about shrinking so that other people won't feel insecure around you. Shrinking is an excuse our fear uses to keep us from shining-- from living. From feeling alive.

We are all meant to shine, as children do. We were born to make manifest the glory of God that is within us.

That, my dears, is our identity. Our worth.

We were born for it.

It's not just in some of us; it's in everyone. And as we let our own light shine,
as we tap into the truth of our worth and let it permeate our existence and bring us to life,

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, plus me

Faith

So a miracle is occurring.
I have not been lost all along.
And everything my instincts told me
--everything God has told me
--is medically provable.
They discover more every day.
A miracle is occurring, and has been occurring all along.
I was not wrong. I was right.
And have always been.
My instincts are trustworthy. I know which to trust.
The miracle of life, death, and rebirth is occurring,
continuously,
and has been all along. Since the beginning of time.
The upward spiral towards eternal life has not failed.
Eternal life is now. Death is dying. Fear fades. Shadows dissipate.
Light breaks through, and all is made new.

"There are times when you choose to believe something that would normally be considered absolutely irrational. It doesn't mean that it is actually irrational, but it surely is not rational. Perhaps there is suprarationality: reason beyond the normal definitions of fact or data-based logic; something that only makes sense if you can see a bigger picture of reality. Maybe that is where faith fits in."

She turned back and smiled. "I know. I didn't tell you so that you would understand right now. I told you for later. At this point, you don't even comprehend that freedom is an incremental process." Gently reaching out, she took Mack's hand in hers, flour covered and all, and looking him straight in the eyes she continued, "Mackenzie, the Truth shall set you free and the Truth has a name; he's over in the woodshop right now covered in sawdust. Everything is about him. And freedom is a process that happens inside a relationship with him. Then all that stuff you feel churnin' around inside will start to work its way out."

"Living unloved is like clipping a bird's wings and removing its ability to fly."..."pain has a way of clipping our wings and keeping us from being able to fly." She waited a moment, allowing her words to settle. "And if left unresolved for very long, you can almost forget that you were ever created to fly in the first place."


"I am sick at heart.
How long, O Lord, until you restore me?"

"How long must I struggle with anguish in my soul,
with sorrow in my heart every day?"