Last night I resurrected my memory play, Tomatoes on a Windowsill, that I performed over 11 years ago in the California area and New York. It was part of the Sacred Journey Program. Tomatoes on a Windowsill is about my Italian family, most prominently, about growing up under my dictatorial father.

In the question and answer period last night, someone asked me, “Was it different doing the show now after all these years?” Well, it would have to be or else I would be the same person and I am not.

Many thoughts come to my mind in this revival of Tomatoes on a Windowsill, and one of them is how much memory plays out in our life. Ernest Holmes in the Science of Mind writes that one of the greatest discoveries that we ever made was that our thoughts go out and then come back to us as a memory. If we really took this in and dissected it, we’d realize that much of the time we are unconsciously thinking our memories and reacting to life from that place.

The good news is that we can rethink in every moment. We do not have to keep playing the same old broken record. We can have new thoughts. We can have new ideas. We can look at things anew in every moment by being consciously aware.

When I was a child, as perhaps many of us were, I was told things and I took in things that no longer serve me. They are in my memory bank. I don’t think I ever get to lose them, but I do get to choose what I want to use of them. I still get to either accept them for who I am or I get to say no, I am not that thing that I was taught and believed. I am new. I am not the things I was told. I am light. I am love. I am grown up now.

Mrytle Filmore, one of the Unity Founders, once wrote about our heritage. It really struck me because I understood that my parents weren’t really my true parents. Yes, they were the wonderful beings that brought me here through biology, but my real heritage is heavenly. My real heritage is Divine. My real DNA is Spirit. The choice for me is whether I decide to affiliate myself totally as Spirit or whether I think I am blood and  bone only.

Last night after the performance, someone also said that while watching me, they saw that they had transcended their own childhood. I think that is the difference for me, too, between this performance of Tomatoes on a Windowsill and the one I closed with in 2006. I do believe that I have finally transcended my childhood. I am here and now and the person I have become comes from those memories, but she has chosen so many new thoughts along the way and re-embodied those thoughts and ideas that she is most definitely new.

Ao, why do this show again? I’m scheduled to do it in March for my 65th birthday. The show used to be for me. Now it is a gift for others. I trust it will get us all to look at family lineage and its impact on our present life. It, hopefully, points the way to renewal and change and the ability to choose our memories. We all have a history. We get to learn from our history as it bridges us into the present that we choose to live now.

In a way, we are all living a memory play. The thing that makes the difference is our perspective. I believe I am finally looking at my life from a higher perspective. It doesn’t stop here. There is an even higher one coming as I continue to transform and assist others along the way.

Love and Aloha,

Rev. Rita