A Funny Thing Happened …

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Rachel Leecat
Catherine, Rachel, and Lee

A funny thing happened on my way to this blog post.  Today our family was honored by the graduation of one of our granddaughters, Rachel Helen Daugherty.  Rachel graduated from Mater Dei High School in Santa Ana, California. Grandpa Lee and I are so very proud of her.  I know it is a cliché’ but honestly it seems like only yesterday we were holding her tiny body in our hands and thanking God for the birth of this precious baby girl.

Fast forward 18 years and today we joined about 5,000 other proud parents, grandparents, siblings, aunts, uncles, cousins and friends for this morning’s event.  The student speakers were outstanding and when the vocalists performed it was difficult to believe we were listening to 18-year-old high school students and not well-seasoned professionals.

However, it was Mr. Patrick Murphy, President of Mater Dei that left me wanting to read a quote he used to begin his speech.  He told us he was quoting the great Nelson Mandela as he spoke these words.

“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, 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.
We are all meant to shine, as children do.
We are 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.”

As I listened to these words I felt emotion stir inside.  He wasn’t speaking only to the 450 graduates seated directly in front of him, but he was speaking to all of us, to me. “We are born to make manifest the glory of God that is within us” –  yes! I believe this and am living proof!

For this blog post I intended to share these powerful words as I shared the picture of Rachel, her grandfather, and I.  But a funny thing happened on the way to writing this evening.  I searched the internet to get a copy of the words he spoke.  But instead, this is what I found:

A Return to Love
Reflections on the Principles of A Course in Miracles by Marianne Williamson

This quote has been incorrectly attributed to Nelson Mandela in his inaugural speech of 1994.  He never spoke these words in his speeches that year.

You can read Nelson’s actual inaugural speeches HERE.

WHAT? Information I found in seconds seems to have alluded Mr. Murphy.  How is that possible?  Are the words more impressive or more powerful when attached to Nelson Mandela?  Would Mr. Murphy have used this quote if he had done his homework and knew it needed to be attributed to Marianne Williamson?

My favorite lines are these:

“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, and fabulous?
Actually, who are you not to be?
You are a child of God”

Thank you Marianne Williamson for writing these words and for the emotional response they have touched in me.  Rachel has a fabulous future ahead of her as she prepares to attend college in the fall.  But today I am reminded that as a child of God, I too have much to look forward to tomorrow and every day that follows in this life under the sun!

God Bless You too!
~ Catherine

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