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Ginger

Writer, project manager

I have been a freelance writer for 20 years, having received wonderful corporate writing and business training from my first job out of college at IBM. I am curious about ... well, almost everything and that's why I am so grateful that my job also brings me joy. I am currently writing a book about d...

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What's On Your Bulletin Board?

by Ginger Schlanger

Marianne Williamson, the new-agey author and a lecturer on A Course In Miracles, was in town this past weekend to speak to audiences who eat up her thoughts on love, healing and spiritual guidance. I once listened to A Return to Love on CD, read by Marianne herself, and I certainly learned a pearl or two (but I have to admit I thought she got a little whiney at times, and some of it was kind of hokey -- and you have to get pretty hokey for me to think so, as I enjoy very much what some would call “out-there” or “Chick-Lit” books such as Ask and itShall be Given and Eat, Pray, Love, andthe like).

Anyway, I have kept a quote of Ms. Williamson’s on my desk bullentin board for about the past 12 years -- someone sent it to me and it really resonated with me. I’ve typed it in below, and maybe you will keep it on your desk for inspiration.

What else is posted on my bulletin board to muse the muse in me? I have an article from a 1983 Reader’s Digest about a father and his two sons, and how he relishes their childhood because he himself was an only child. It is an article I read over and over again and each time it makes me smile and cry.

I have a picture of a man holding his girlfriend’s face in both of his hands, their noses touching, and with his eyes cast on her mouth, he is gently tugging on her lower lip as a prelude to a kiss. Her eyes are closed and she is giving in to the decadence of that kiss. I just like that picture. A lot.

I have a picture that my son drew for me -- it’s me kickboxing and he’s got all these cheerleading balloon-words around, like, “You rock, Mom” and “You’re the best.”

I have pictures of my son and me in various Halloween costumes and at parties; some favorite sayings from my favorite word artist, Brian Andreas’  (www.storypeople.com); I have a note from a girl at a bar who wrote down the name of her breast surgeon (which I have yet to use); I have a recipe for a drink called Redhead in Bed that I’ve yet to make (maybe I have to have one or two of those before I call the breast doctor); I have a list of 57 Random Acts of Kindness torn out of an Oprah Magazine; I have a picture of me in a bikini when I was 19, drinking a Miller lite and eating a sandwich at the zoo -- when I look at that photo I remember I never thought I was pretty or thin enough, and I look at it now and realize I was plenty of both and wasted a lot of time not loving and enjoying what I had; I have a quote I usually send to my son’s teacher at some point in the school year -- it says: “If you promise not to believe everything your child says happens at school, I’ll promise not to believe everything he says happens at home.” I love to send this when I’m asking about something --  it lets them know I get it; not all 6th graders are prisoners and slaves.

I have a quote from Louis L’Amour that says, “There will come a time when you believe everything is finished. That will be just the beginning.”  Doesnt’ that feel amazing to read and take in?

And finally, I have the quote from Marianne Williamson, that I have read a thousand times. It was even in the movie that Starbucks produced: Akindele and the Bee. (Sweet feel-good movie, by the way). I like to read it to remind myself of everyone’s individual choice of behavior -- to shine or not to shine -- and in particular, I resonate with the first two lines. I believe there are times I am stuck in my shoes simply because I get overwhelmed by the positive possibilities. I’m workin’ on it, though!

So here it is ... read it and if you take a liking to it, maybe you’ll post it on your own bulletin board.

Excerpt from A Return to Love -- by Marianne Williamson

Our deepest fear is not that we are inadequate,
Our fear is t hat 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 around you won’t feel insecure around you.

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 liberate from our own fear, our presence automatically liberates others.