The Sacred Journey began last night. It was a beautiful opening with a short ceremony and lots of reuniting of friends and welcoming of new friends. As I looked around, I was almost startled by the reality of seeing the Center for Spiritual Living that Patrick and I had birthed five years ago. I realized in a most deep way that we had a full Center. People were actually coming to be part of something. It isn’t a small choice in these days to fly thousands of miles, and spend time, money and energy to be part of something; yet, here they were.

It made me ask why? Why are they here? What had we actually created? There is only one answer. We created something – an effect – but we created it from ourselves. So, in reality, it was us. The creation was us. If it weren’t, what else would it be? We do not make things, we birth ideas, effects of our own consciousness. They came because they were called into our creation. However, we were also called into their creation.

The people who stood around me last night also created this particular experience. Their consciousness created us and this journey as their mental equivalent for their own evolution. It could not be otherwise. Nothing can be in our experience if we have not called it forth from within.

So, here we all are – together. What will occur for each of us is up to us individually. We have named it a Journey of Transformation. And so it is! Something within each of us has called ourselves forth into transformation. We will discover what that is as we open up to the opportunities presented. There will be many opportunities from casual conversations to physical and emotional opportunities for transformation.

What is transformation? Of course the butterfly is one of the most common examples of it. The egg becomes a caterpillar that becomes a chrysalis, that becomes a butterfly. However, it isn’t the effects that are produced that are as important as the process. What is happening within the process, seen and unseen, that makes up the transformation.

In so far as the Journey is concerned, it doesn’t matter what activities that the participants choose to participate in or back away from as much as it is what goes on within as those decisions are made. Transformation is always occurring. We are in motion at all times, changing.

I am open to transforming myself. I am open to change. I am open to this Journey, knowing I am both the facilitator and the facilitated. I might be in charge, but I have the opportunity to transform myself at the same time.

All the pieces put together by planning are thrown up in the air right now. They are suspended in motion. I must always remind myself that I am not holding them there. The very Power that created galaxies and oceans is aback of the whole experience. I get to choose how much of it I want to incorporate into my transformation. It’s all there. Can I relax into it or will I think I am holding all the pieces in place? Whichever decision I make will determine my experience. I will remind myself in every moment that I have that choice.

Love and Aloha,

Rev. Rita