In June of 2006 I had the pleasure of helping my friend Jeff Salzmann with his Flye Point Music Festival held near Brooklin, Maine. My "job" was to chaperone one of the headline acts, the lovely, Odetta. Before her show, she recited the following passage from Marianne Williamson's book, A Return to Love. After the festival, as a thank you, Odetta gifted me with a handwritten, autographed copy of these words. She new I performed weddings in Key West and asked me to pass these words on to couples I met...I've incorporated this lovely passage in my ceremonies ever since. Odetta passed on December 2, 2008 and I dedicate this page in her memory. She is known as the "voice of the civil rights movement" and Bob Dylan said she was the person who turned him on to folk music. One of her most stirring songs is "I'm gonna let it shine". This little heart of mine, I'm gonna let it shine...
Everday Grace By Marianne Williamson
“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.”
