That is a great quote.  I can see why you like it so much.  It is very uplifting. 

Please tell me those azalea's are not yours! Seriously, the quote is amazing too. Playing small does not serve the world and those around us. Happy Easter, Liz.

This really hit home, Liz.  I was forced to excell in school (high school and college) and was in the honors program, etc.  When I met my soon-to-be husband, I started "playing down."  The reason I did that is because he was a football player and did not take school very seriously so he wasn't quite as "intelligent" as I thought I was.  I stopped using big words and started oversimplifying things for his benefit. One day, he came out and said for me to stop talking down to him and to stop talking to him as though he was an idiot.  I'll never forget him telling me "How do you expect people to grow if you never challenge them?"  It was my intellect that attracted him to me in the first place, he said (but he's a guy so I highly doubt that!).  When I stopped doing that, we started having lengthy discussions about things I had no idea he knew.  And then he felt the desire to go back to college, which he did.

"There's nothing enlightened about shrinking so that other people won't feel insecure around you. 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."  Truer words have never been spoken!

~Renae

I'd never heard that before that I can remember. Thank you for sharing. That balloon or kite or whatever above the pool is BEAUTIFUL!

Liz: Fatastic post! These lines "We ask ourselves, who am I to be brilliant, gorgeous, talented and 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." are brilliant beyond measure.

It seems so clear in the abstract but is difficult in practice for the very reasons Mandela describes. Fear of success keeps us from being free and its chains are like iron. We must exert nearly superhuman effort to escape mediocrity as it is so terrifying to do so. In her breakthrough work "How to Wake up and Live" Dorothea Brande ruminates on these very points. But as Mandela says "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." Wow!

Hi Russ, yes I've had it for years, and never tire of reading it.  Liz

Hi Miss Missy,yes they are :), I'll come see you and show you a few more, they are as pretty this year as I've ever seen them.  Glad you enjoyed the part of his speech.  Liz

Hi Cheri,it's a wind sock that looks like a hot air balloon.  I found it in San Diego, and it really twirls in the wind, best wind sock I've ever had, that is my yard.  I take pictures of everything now you never know when you'll need it for a blog :).  Liz

Hi Matt,you nailed it, "fear of success", some people don't know that is their stumping block not fear of failure.  Like you are either driven by pleasure or fear, and of course you need to know what your "buttons" are.  Do you want to make money and be a success because you want the toys, or because you are afraid of not having enough?  Great questions to ask yourself to know what motivates you.  Liz

Hi Renae, I left you a message on one of your blogs, please come back and tell me the rest of "your story".  Still married to the same guy, have yall lived happily ever since?  Hope to hear from you, Liz

A close up of my azaleas...glorious this year, L

Hey Liz -

Yes, we are still together.  Our 13th anniversary is coming up. We've got 4 kids, ages 12-1, with twins due in about another week.  We have actually lived happily ever after (although not without some fighting along the way hahahaah).  My husband is now a Switch Technician for Sprint PCS.  He figures out what causes your cell phone call to drop and stops it from happening again.  He does stuff that I have absolutely no clue what it is! lol  I love it!  Where I was once the primary financial provider for our family, he now smokes how much I bring in.  And the great thing about it is that he absolutely loves what he does!  What he didn't have, he now instills in our children - do well in school, think of all the possibilities of what you could do if you wanted to, have a desire to do something meaningful with your life.

~Renae

Renae,thanks for the happy ending to your story :).  I was hoping that was the way it worked out...congratulations on a happy, successful marriage, Liz

Hey Liz - Thank you for this WONDERFUL post, reminding us, too, of this amazing leader and his words of light. This is a perfect idea to embrace these last days before Easter, as we move towards a fuller Light and greater understanding of our true nature, and elevate our thoughts to allow the Light to rise within us and become manifest.

I visited South Africa for several months in 1996, and lived there from 1997 - 2000. These were the first few years following apartheid (that ended in 1994), and the wisdom and leadership of Mandela and the changes his words had sparked throughout a continent was so evident and seemed to be reverberating in the land. You could also feel the 'fear' about change. There was a humorous saying among the people "we wish for the bad old times in the good old days." Change requires courage, but more than that, true healing and mending of a civilization requires faith and work, work, work beyond what any one of us can do alone, but what all of us can do together...a single flame lights many candles --- this message from Mandela is an invitation to shine. Thank YOU for shining, Liz.

Liz - Nelson Mandela is a wise man, and this quote is terrific and motivational.  I need to find my own framed copy somewhere.  Good stuff!

Hi Mara,as always your words are so insightful, YOU are the one that should be a writer, and it shows through in your post.  Look forward to one were you really let loose :).  Liz

Hey Jason, there you are :).  Miss hearing from you, glad you liked this one too...mine isn't framed :).  You are always one up on me.  Liz

Love this shoot I got, when it's bigger you can see the water drops on it, and it looks like the light is shinning from within.