Akeelah and the Bee

Yesterday I watched the movie "Akeelah and the Bee." It's about a girl competing in spelling bees who eventually makes it to the national spelling bee in Washington D.C. Even though it's about spelling bees, it's actually a lot like my beloved inspirational sports movies... you know, there's an underdog (probably from a bad part of town or a minority group - or both), the underdog starts competing in a sport and improbably wins, the underdog keeps winning against all odds, the community starts to rally around the underdog, the underdog eventually makes it to the championship and wins the whole thing. Everyone who previously disliked the underdog now sees the error of their ways! Good people get what they deserve! I just love all those movies. So Akeelah and the Bee was a lot like that, even if it's not about sports. Though the national spelling bee is shown on ESPN every year...

At any rate, if you've never seen the movie, I can't recommend it highly enough. It was wonderful and inspiring and just a real feel-good movie!

During the movie, the lead character read a quote which I just loved. It is my new favorite quote and one I would like to adopt as a life philosphy. I need have have it stitched on a sampler to hang on the wall or something, because it speaks to me that much.

"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."
Marianne Williamson, A Return to Love: Reflections on the Principles of a Course in Miracles, Harper Collins, 1992.