Ah, Florida! / Our deepest fear . . .

Guitar in hand, I headed to Florida for a few days to play this last week (Mon-Thurs) for the 2009 SolidWorks World Convention. It's kind of like the annual Grateful Dead Concert for engineers and designers . . . amazing how many CAD designers and engineers are on-the-side-musicians. Some pretty brilliant people there. The activity SolidWorks sponsored this time was a night at Disney's Animal Kingdom. The rented the whole place out for attendees, employees, etc. Oh man did we eat well, party hard, and get our money's worth (er- their money's worth) of rides and ice cream. :) I seriously contemplated getting a tattoo of some cartoon character but I'm too tough for tattoos. haha.


On a separate note, yesterday I spent a fun Sunday morning with a friend of mine (and seriously sweet songwriter), Jarrett Burns. We left his place around 5am and headed to Salt Lake (lol - meaning I got up at 3am or so to get ready). We did a morning news TV performance. He sang a few lines from some of his other tunes and then we sang his song "Shine." That song has such a profound message.The whole idea of shining - who are you not to be? Jarrett wrote it in essence to be about a well-known quote that is often attributed Nelson Mandela (said it in his inaugural address). It's a message I have always deeply loved and have referred to my little worn copy of it often over the years. The actual quote (by Marianne Williamson) goes:

“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.”

Who are you not to be . . . . ?