Light From Within
November 2008
Cowardice asks the question, Is it safe?
Expediency asks the question, Is it politic?
Vanity asks the question, Is it popular?
But, conscience asks the question, Is it right?
And there comes a time when one must take a position
that is neither safe, nor politic, nor popular, but one
must take it because one's conscience tells one that it
is right.
Martin Luther King, Jr
Courage is be true to what
is in your heart, even in the face of potential
backlash. There is pressure in our culture to be
politically neutral in the arena of business. Like the
separation of church and state, we often keep our
principles and politics out of the workplace and
confine it to our homes. In many instances, there is
wisdom in such intentions. Too often, personalities
become intertwined in political debates and everyone
loses in the need to be right. For some reason we find
cause to argue, caught in the out-dated illusion that
in order to be for something we have to be against
someone.
Nevertheless, tonight I challenge the status quo. I
step out of the box. I become transparent in my
principles because, for the first time in my life, I
feel the emergence of a leader who echoes my
conscience. My business and my practice are really a
reflection of who I am, and an aim to share my gifts
through the way I am designed to serve. And so, with
joy and an unprecedented feeling of my own ideals and
truths reflected, I share my unabashed joy at the
election of Barack Obama as the new president of the
United States. In doing so, I take the risk that some
of you will confuse my principles with political issues
and turn a derisive ear on my musings. It's a chance I
am willing to take; as I believe that truth and
transparency always lead us closer to what unites us in
the end.
Hope is the voice within, that in the absence of all
evidence insists that Light is still present.
Hope, a fundamental SHiNE
Principle.
I can't ever remember
feeling connected to a political leader who lived and
drew breath in my lifetime. I have yearned to feel
inspired by, not only a personality, but a message that
resonates at the core of who I am. My life has been a
bumpy journey guiding me towards the ideals of truth,
humility, grace, compassion, and most of all, hope.
I so often looked around at the world in which I lived
with confusion, wondering if the unity, diplomacy, and
promise that I know is possible might ever be reflected
back to me on a large scale in my lifetime. As a child
who moved from small town to small town, I felt
isolated from the world of stability and abundance. As
an adolescent I was baffled by my small but powerful
reality that demanded an offensiveness of me that I
didn't inherently possess. As a young college student,
I dove into philosophy, religion, and ancient texts as
substitutes for the leadership I yearned for in my
coming of age. And as a young adult, I have often felt
I am designed to live in a different world than the one
reflected back to me in our cultural habits and
expectations. Nevertheless, I have fought to live the
life of hope through my choices. No matter what safety,
expedience, and vanity might have to say...inner
authority matters most of all. And there is a light
inside of me - however dim it may seem at times - that
says it is possible to be who I am in this world. It is
indeed possible to recreate a world in which everyone
feels he or she has a place and a significance.
Tonight, I shed tears of joy as I witnessed a crowd of
hundreds of thousands of people like me (young,
diverse, and full of promise) with light and
possibility in their eyes. While I have confidence in
Obama's principles and what he represents, I did not
vote for a man, an issue, or an icon. I voted for a
message of hope and unity. I have no doubt that as a
president he will face challenges, and I pray that as
Americans we offer he and his family the grace of
humanness. However, it is the premise of possibility
and common purpose that inspires me beyond he, the
person. It is what his brilliance elicits in others
that matters most to me. It's the look of
determination, inspiration, and strength that I saw
reflected in eyes of so many in the crowd that gathered
all over the country that moved me to tears. You see,
as a coach and teacher, I know the power of a will
driven by purpose. Nothing stands in the way of the
promise of possibility when the will is self-initiated
and encouraged.
Change will not come if we wait for some other person
or some other time. We are the ones we've been waiting
for. We are the change that we seek.
Barack Obama
I have never felt more
certain and motivated in my work and in the potential
of a new world. Tonight, I cried for the child inside
of me - and the ancient archetype inside of so many
around the world - who never thought someone like her
could ever be fully accepted by the world in which we
live.
Regardless of your political affiliation, may you have
the courage to look beyond division and find a way to
unify and align with the greater good that we all seek.
I respect you fully for your beliefs, your principles,
and your vote in any direction. May we embrace a world
where we can all be honored and listened to in our joys
and successes, and more importantly in our
disappointments and frustrations.
Personally, I see a universal victory in the outcome of
this election. In this season of long days of darkness,
we are forced look to the light within - the spark of
potential felt, yet unseen in the absence of sun. It is
from that prick of light inside that spring is seeded.
In actuality, potential for change comes not from an
outside source, but from our own conviction and inner
compass in life. May we all tend to the hope within in
order to unite in a common purpose. After all, in the
end, it is our differences that empower and enable us
to experience deep love, living in a symphonic harmony
that sameness simply cannot express.
Yours as a New American,
Candice
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