Marianne Williamson

Birth is violent whether it be the birth of a child or the birth of an idea.

Love is what we are born with. Fear is what we learn.

Spirituality isn't some quaint stepchild of an intelligent worldview, or the only option for those of us not smart enough to understand the facts of the real world. Spirituality reflects the most sophisticated mindset, and the most powerful force available for the transformation of human suffering.

Can the purpose of a relationship be to trigger our wounds? In a way, yes, because that is how healing happens; darkness must be exposed before it can be transformed. The purpose of an intimate relationship is not that it be a place where we can hide from our weaknesses, but rather where we can safely let them go. It takes strength of character to truly delve into the mystery of an intimate relationship, because it takes the strength to endure a kind of psychic surgery, an emotional and psychological and even spiritual initiation into the higher Self. Only then can we know an enchantment that lasts.

Success means we go to sleep at night knowing that our talents and our abilities were used in a way that served people. _We're compensated by grateful looks in other people's eyes, whatever material abundance supports us in performing joyfully and at high energy, and the magnificent feeling that we did our bit today to help save the world.

If our emotional stability is based on what other people do or do not do, then we have no stability. If our emotional stability is based on love that is changeless and unalterable, then we attain the stability of God.

If we're talented at music, that talent is of god. _If something makes our heart sing, that's god's way of telling us its a contribution he wants us to make. _Sharing our gifts is what makes us happy. We're_most powerful and god's power is most apparent on the earth when we're happy. A course in miracles teaches that we are only truly happy when we're doing god's will. _The only thing to be saved from is our own negativity and fear. _The crux of salvation in any area is a shift in our sense of purpose. _That shift is a miracle, as always we consciously ask for it: _'Dear god, please give my life some sense of purpose. use me as an instrument of your peace. _Use my talents and abilities to spread love. _I_surrender my job to you. Help me to remember that my real job is to love the world back to health.

We don't know how to be women because we were taught it was not OK to be girls. Our most natural impulses were thwarted and distorted.

There is nowhere you need go to find God, for God is within you. There is no one you need ask if you are good enough, for He has already established He is exceedingly well pleased.

In fact, ambitious tension actually limits our ability to succeed because it keeps us in a state of contraction emotionally and physically. It seems to give us energy but doesn't really. _Like the white sugar of mental health,_there's a short high followed by a crash. _The cultivation of mental rest or surrender is like eating healthy food. _It doesn__ give us an immediate rush, but over time it provides a lot more energy.

The return to love is hardly the end of life's adventure. _It's the real beginning. _A course in miracle says we think we have many different problems but we really only have one: _denying love is the only problem and embracing it is the only answer.

From a mind filled with infinite love comes the power to create infinite possibilities. We have the power to think in ways that reflect and attract all the love in the world. Such thinking is called enlightenment. Enlightenment is not a process we work toward, but a choice available to us in any instant.

As long as there are ways we can serve, then we have a job to do.

If our prayer is __ear God, please use me to be of service,_ then that is what we will be. And it is not for us to judge either the size or value of our gifts. Our job is to try to get out of the way, to defer to the spirit moving within us and become open channels for the flow of God__ love.

Give all your gifts away in service to the world. _If you want to paint, don't wait for a grant, paint a wall in your town that looks drab and uninviting. _You never know who is going to see that wall. Whatever it is you want to do, give it away in service to your community.

Another miraculous_transformation is the shift from a sales mentality to a service mentality. When we're motivated by the desire to sell, we're only looking out for ourselves. _When we're motivated by the desire to serve, we're looking out for others. _Since in the realm of consciousness, we only get to keep what we give away, a service mentality is a far_more abundant_attitude.

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?

Something very beautiful happens to people when their world has fallen apart: a humility, a nobility, a higher intelligence emerges at just the point when our knees hit the floor. Perhaps, in a way, that's where humanity is now: about to discover we're not as smart as we thought we were, will be forced by life to surrender our attacks and defenses which avail us of nothing, and finally break through into the collective beauty of who we really