1. Always shine.

1. Always shine.

My number one person commandment.  My version of "Be Gretchen."

I understand that saying to "always shine" is not quite the same thing as telling yourself to always be true to yourself... but in a way, it is for me.  It reminds me that there's that inner fire I've been missing that should always be shining and showing the outside world who I am.  And if it's not shining, it reminds me to "fake it till I make it."

Now to end with an often mis-attributed quote I love 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 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 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're liberated from our own fear, our presence automatically liberates others."