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Quotes

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The purpose of life is to find our gifts.
The meaning of life is to give them away.

- Anon; in the signature of a letter from Ellen Allard to the Hanashir email list,
   dated 2001.10.21

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The Guest House - by Rumi - a poem set to art and music

This being human is a guest house ... every morning a new arrival
   ... an unexpected visitor ... welcome and entertain them all!

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I first heard this at the Ottawa Folk Festival, in 2000, read by Odetta. Powerful. - RS

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 is nothing enlightened about shrinking
so that other people will not feel insecure around you.
We were born to make manifest the glory of God that is within us.
It is not in just some of us; it is in everyone.
And as we let our own light shine,
we unconsciously give people permission to do the same.
As we are liberated from our own fear,
our presence automatically liberates others.

from A Return to Love, by Marianne Williamson
(New York: Harper Collins, 1992, pp. 190-191)

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More quotes to follow! - RS

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