The Inscurity Blanket

Insecurity. So prevalent, it is almost a pre-requisite for being human. We all have a little of it, and the way it influences ou actions and thoughts often impacts how we live our lives and treat the people around us.

Recently I noticed that we like to wrap this insecurity about us. Like the oppsite of Linus' security blanket, or the direct opposite of rose tinted glasses. And strangely enough, just like the opposite of rose tinted glasses, we often turn this view inwards.

Why is insecurity so comforting that we would rather wrap ourselves up in it than shed it aside and see things for what they really are? Why does a strong man want to think of himself weak? Or a beautiful woman ugly, a rich person poor, or a powerful one, impotent?

I have it as well. My little shred of an insecurity blanket. I was asked in two days, by two different people why it is that I'm lounging. And maybe, just maybe I'm slacking because I have tried to aim for the stars at one time, fell badly, and now instead of standing at the precipice, ready to take another plunge, I am scared to even approach the edge, and am just comfortable where it's safe.

Perhaps it is the idea of with great power comes great responsibility. That if we acknowledge ourselves to be capable, we then become duty bound to exercise our gifts. And in that exercise, we have to acknowledge that we might possibly have a responsibility to ethics.

I have always held Marianne Williamson's quote from "A Return to Love" close to my heart, and I realize now that it might not be a poem for all of us, even though it was written that way. It is for the people who are finally willing to shed their insecurity blankets and live it up. For the ones who are kicking ass and taking names.

I am reminded again, that before we become, it must first be real inside our heads. Once it is real inside, reality will catch up. That, is the simplest, and the hardest lesson of all.

From Marianne Williamson's "A Return To Love"

“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? You are a child of God. Your playing small does not serve the world. There is nothing enlightened about shrinking so that other people won't feel insecure around you.

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