inner light...

my daughter casually handed me this painting last night, a self portrait.  "just a little something i did in art class", she said, "it's a little messed up".  what???!!?  "NO", i told her.  it's perfect.  i love it.  i tried my best to squash her critical inner voice.  i'm familiar with that one myself and it's not welcome here.  i've propped it on the mantel for now until i can get a proper frame for it.  all day long i've been sneaking peeks at it.

i really do love it.  it captures her essence so perfectly.  her expression - somewhat skeptical, questioning - so her.  she questions everything.

i see it as so much more than a painting.  it symbolizes her light.  her fabulous, beautiful inner light.  like a lot of us, she's had a hard time learning to shining that light of hers.  i don't think she realizes it yet, but i do.  her light is really starting to shine.  and it's gonna be blinding.  i just know it.

"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."
The above speech for Nelson Mandela by Marianne Robertson