Infinite Possibilities
A Conversation with Marianne Williamson
by Connie Mears
Marianne Williamson catapulted into the limelight when she appeared on the Oprah Winfrey show to discuss her book, A Return To Love: Reflections on A Course in Miracles (Harper Collins, 1992). Raised in a Jewish household, and influenced by the experimentation of the 60s, Williamson sought a spiritual awakening during those turbulent times.
A Course in Miracles, while steeped in the language of Christianity, offered a teaching that resonated with Williamson, and after studying and lecturing on the teachings, she wrote a book that would bring its lessons to a wider audience.
Like the 60s themselves, Williamson’s work is a mixture of spiritual, political, and social issues. The Age of Miracles is the fifth of her 11 books to hit The New York Times bestseller list. The others are A Return to Love, Illuminata, A Woman’s Worth, and Everyday Grace.
A quote that was widely (and erroneously) attributed to the inauguration speech of Nelson Mandela is actually from Williamson in A Return to Love: “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 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.”
The widespread use and popularity of these words served as a gateway to her teachings for many who responded to her message, but might not have found her book tucked away in the metaphysical section of the local bookstore.
Williamson has since become a world-renowned speaker, appearing on the circuit of star-making shows: Oprah, Larry King Live, Good Morning America, and Charlie Rose. Throughout her appearances and writings, she has woven service into her message.
In 1989, she launched Project Angel Food (www.angelfood.org), a meals-on-wheels program for people with AIDS. She co-founded the Global Renaissance Alliance, a networking organization to align like-minded groups dedicated to nonviolent change. Publicly (and even politically) active, she lobbies for a national Department of Peace in the U.S.
The title of Williamson’s new book, The Age of Miracles: Embracing the New Midlife (Hay House, 2008), comes from an observation by Lydia Bronte, Ph.D., author of The Longevity Factor, that for various reasons, we’ve added 15 years onto our lives. However, this bonus isn’t tacked on to the end of life, but grafted into the middle.
“It’s not a new biological territory, obviously,” Williamson explains from her home in Houston, “but psychologically and emotionally, it has to do with a time in which we know we’re not old yet, but we also realize we’re not young anymore either.”
In The Age of Miracles, a socio-spiritual manifesto of sorts, Williamson encourages readers to maximize this extra season of life by tapping all the unfulfilled promise that was silenced way back when.
Connie Mears: Why is this new midlife different than what our parents might have experienced?
Marianne Williamson: In former times, when a more traditional family structure dominated our social interactions, I think people had more of a sense of what to do with their lives: growing older with a mate, becoming grandparents, etc. Our civilization has changed so much that people can feel adrift in a way that perhaps they didn’t when the family structure was more traditional. So we are beginning to define a sense of meaning in more psychological, emotional, and spiritual terms than in material ones. We are recognizing that where we have come and where we have been brought, both from the lessons of our failures as well as the lessons of our success, can actually make us now wiser and more productive people.
Sometimes it’s the things we regret that lead us into greater humility. It’s the things we’ve had to get over, the things we’ve had to transcend that ultimately makes us stronger. The things in our past that might have felt like failures become a success if they are seen as a catalyst for personal growth and illumination. That really is a choice each individual makes. If you don’t make that choice, then you simply begin to age—it’s as simple as that.
When you’re looking down a tunnel of 30 or 40 years before you die, people are recognizing there’s a choice to be made. What this book is about is making that other choice.
Strength of character
Mears: You wrote that we’re living in a moment of quantum possibility now, that the world is asking us to step up in a deeper way. I’m feeling that call in a personal way, and I can’t figure out if the world is mirroring my own personal perspective or if we’re all feeling this collectively because of the shared history that got us here.
Williamson: In ways that do not appear to the mortal eye, it’s all the same thing. From a metaphysical standpoint, there’s only one of us here, so that’s why it’s not an accident that the world seems backed into a corner and so do we (laughs). This is the time in our lives and this is the time on our planet when whatever isn’t working has to stop now.
Mears: You write that “New growth emerges not from strategy but from character.” For these retailers—some of whom have had their stores for 20 years, some of whom have left corporate jobs and opened a store that offers expansive, inspired wares—can you speak a little more about how to nurture character that will support new growth?
Williamson: I’d like to speak a little bit to the issue of business. These are tough economic times and many people are feeling it in a way they were not expecting. Many businesses are losing money because people are having to stave off a lot of their discretionary spending.
If you run a gift shop, for example, you might see people who used to wander in to buy a gift who feel the need to skip that now. Or, where they used to buy a $50 gift, they will only buy a $20 gift now. That’s what’s happening in our society, whether you call it a recession or not. The fear is spreading out everywhere and people really feel it.
Fortunately, thank God, it’s not something like our parents’ generation had with the Great Depression. But it helps to look at how a previous generation handled an economic downturn and find within ourselves the same strengths of character that others before us have displayed.
There’s a type of panic that can set in that doesn’t have to do with what’s happening, but with the fact that nobody quite sees the light at the end of the tunnel. That’s what the panic is right now.
I think that if we go through this together and really agree that this is temporary, we can use this as a holy time. It’s always during a period of hardship, whether an external hardship
or an internal hardship, that we get to know ourselves better. We can use this as a time to ask ourselves what part we’ve played. Some people who are lost in this economic scramble right now are not responsible for what happened, but many people can look back and recognize where their own kind of financial recklessness might have contributed, their own irresponsibility.
This is a time of deep learning about ourselves and our ability to build community. The only thing strong enough to counter fear, the only antidote to fear, is love. So it is our character that’s going to pull us out of this. Our self-will is not going to pull us out of it. Hopefully, we’ll have a government that will do what it can to provide some relief, but right now we have to look to our own character to endure what needs to be endured. It is through our endurance that we begin to transform circumstances that seem to keep us bound, because tough circumstances are sometimes those that teach us the most.
On the other side of it, we’re better for having gone through it. I think that’s how we all need to hold this particular economic moment in our society.
Mears: I really like your line “Everybody falls, but it’s who gets up and how they do it that determines what happens next.” That reminds me of a Japanese proverb, “Fall seven times, get up eight.”
Williamson: Oh, that’s fabulous. I would have used that but I have never heard that one before.
Mears: You also painted that wonderful picture of the Olympic ice skater who falls.
Williamson: That’s it exactly! What enables them? What strength of character! Once again, it’s about character. They just get right back up. They cannot indulge a moment of self-hatred or self-pity; not a moment. Actually, sometimes those people end up winning! They end up winning because you never know ...
Mears: Until the music stops.
Williamson: Until the music stops.
Mears: Your job is just to give it all you’ve got. I know in my own life there’s been some harder falls that I’ve taken where I have indulged in self-pity. How do you get up after you’ve lain there a little too long?
Williamson: That’s where faith comes in. A Course in Miracles says the presence of fear is a sure sign that you are trusting in your own strength. You were the one who fell. You can’t get you back up. God will get you back up. You’re gonna get back up because God has not lost faith in you. If you recognize what you did that was off, that’s all the Universe needs. When we are truly humble (with healthy shame and remorse) God lifts us back up. You don’t get back up without somebody reaching a hand down from heaven. If you do your part, God will do the rest.
Mears: You wrote about that dark night of the soul, explaining that some of the things we thought were failures can be mined for the treasures they hold.
Williamson: What did you learn from it? That, ultimately, becomes the question. A woman called into my radio program yesterday who had just left a 10-year abusive relationship. She was trying to figure out why she was ever there. Well, ultimately the bigger question is not, “Why was I there?” The bigger question is, “What did I learn from it? What did I learn that will guarantee I will never go there again?”
A different season
Mears: You begin your book with a quote by Jung from Stages of Life: “Thoroughly unprepared, we take the step into the afternoon of life; worse still, we take this step with the false assumption that our truths and ideals will serve us as hitherto. But we cannot live the afternoon of life according to the program of life’s morning; for what was great in the morning will be little at evening, and what in the morning was true will, at evening, have become a lie.”
Williamson: It’s a different time and a different season. All the seasons in nature are beautiful. Winter is beautiful. It’s just different from summer. When the snow’s coming down, it’s beautiful. All the seasons in nature and in us are beautiful, but we have to let go of each season to accept the new one.
Mears: You also wrote about gifting our enthusiasm to younger people in celebration of their growth or achievements,
acting as true elders. Can you speak a little more about that?
Williamson: In the Russian Orthodox Church there is the concept of the Passion Bearer. First of all, I think we complain a lot about elders not being treated with greater honor, but I think elders will be treated with greater honor when we start to behave more honorably. One of the ways we behave more honorably is by holding the passion for what occurs in life. When a younger person becomes pregnant, does their first business deal, enters a management training program, I think our job is to celebrate with them, to demonstrate for them an excitement that gives importance to what they’re doing.
Mears: Which, it seems, we can only do now that we’ve accomplished some of our own dreams.
Williamson: Well, once you’ve become old enough and you’ve experienced enough, you know that if there’s something to celebrate today, celebrate. Some days bring heartache. Some days bring pain. So on the days when there’s something to celebrate, make sure you do.
Mears: What are you celebrating these days? What are the high points for you?
Williamson: My daughter is home on vacation this week. My daughter is happy. I am around family. I have a book on The New York Times bestseller list. I have a radio show that gives me an opportunity to speak about A Course in Miracles on a daily basis. I have this interview. You really do begin to understand that whatever’s happening, it’s a good thing. Declare it a good thing.
Mears: In fact, you warn of the danger of being too serious about it all, and that we would do well to lighten up. You suggest that we reclaim the joy and lightness of our youth. Right now, there are some really serious concerns to be addressed. How do we approach these while at the same time having that passion, enthusiasm, and joy that is really of a lighter nature?
Williamson: As we get older, we naturally begin to recognize and appreciate what matters most. I’m sitting in an apartment right now looking out the window and the sky is so beautiful. The clouds are so gorgeous. When I was young and rushing about, I missed how beautiful the flowers were. When you’re moving too fast, you not only miss out on the wonderful stuff that is there, but you also make mistakes.
Age forces you physically, and invites you spiritually, to slow down. You realize that you think more deeply, more reflectively. You realize that in the days you were not doing that, you made mistakes. That’s how you blew it in a lot of ways. You know, decisions that were made in 10 minutes that should have been made over hours or days. Some of them should have been deeply thought out. We didn’t act from a deeper place. We can do that now.
Mears: Do you think it’s because we’re becoming more present in the moment?
Williamson: Well, that’s what age forces you to do. There’s a joy in having a sort of hormonally based adrenaline rush burn off. It’s a comfort.
Mears: It’s certainly less manic—less up and down.
Williamson: Absolutely. What you thought was the excitement of youth was really the manic quality of youth (laughing). You look around and think, “This isn’t so bad. I kind of like this rocking chair.” Once you realize that the most important level of things is the level of consciousness, then your capacity to just sit and think is your capacity to exercise true power. What this generation could do from their rocking chairs could literally rock the world.
Connie Mears is an artist and writer, living her dream life in Pottsboro, Texas. Mears is a frequent contributor to Inspired Retailer
Marianne Williamson’s popularity continues to grow in 2008, with a daily radio show with Oprah and Friends on XM Radio in which she illuminates 365 lessons from A Course in Miracles. And like so many who wish to deliver a profound message in this age of technology, she has a website, www.marianne.com, with a wealth of information and links to a number of other sites, including a blogsite, www.mwblog.com.