Excerpt from Marianne Williamson's Lecture "The Value of Showing Up"

The Marianne Williamson Lecture Series takes place in Los Angeles weekly. We are pleased to be able to offer this transcribed excerpt from Marianne's lecture on "The Value of Showing Up", recorded live in April 2010.

Another conversation that’s quite impressive in Los Angeles is that around animals and animal rights and eating better -- and that’s very cool, too -- and it’s changing the culture. And I admire that. And one of the things that I have noticed, particularly among many young people having to do with the animal rights movement, etc., is the fierceness and the clarity and the focus of their advocacy. But one of the things that I have felt somewhat frustrated about since returning to Los Angeles is that I have found that it is not quite as easy to get people upset about suffering babies as it is to get them upset about suffering cows or sheep or chickens. And I asked a friend of mine, I said, “You know, I so admire this.” 

I went to the Humane Society dinner, and you know we all do what we can and vote for the right things, etc. Donate to the right places. I said, “What is it that you guys have that you’re so passionate about this with the animals?” One woman had actually said to me with no irony whatsoever in her voice, she said to me, “I understand how you feel; I started with human beings.” But I had said to my girlfriend, I said, “What is it? What is that fierce advocacy that you guys have around the animals?” And her response to me was something along the line.. I don’t remember her exact words… but something about, “Once I got it, once I saw, you just, you’re in that zone once you see it.” And I heard her, but her words reverberated from me when I was in Kenya because I got it.

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Marianne Williamson bio and links