It’s Super Bowl Sunday, and the idea of Super Bowls brings up the idea of champions. Do you feel like a champion?

Over the past few days, I’ve had several experiences of feeling less than a champion. I treated about that last night, and this morning, I woke up to these wise words from Rev. Dr. David Goldberg in the Science of Mind Magazine: “It makes difference if it (your accomplishment) is recognized by anyone other than you. You know what you’re here to do. Honor yourself, and your mastery and your soul’s journey.”

What would it feel like to need no outside recognition? It would be freeing, would it not? Freeing, because you would have a true sense of yourself, a knowing that could never be taken away. You would also take expectations off others. It is not anyone’s responsibility to make you feel good or recognize your accomplishments. There is only one person who carries that responsibility and it is you. I’ve noticed that no one can actually make me feel good anyway. If I do not feel good about myself, those compliments and kudos are fleeting.

How do we feel about ourselves? Do we realize who amazing we are, or do we continually see ourselves as someone who might or might not have lived up to someone else’s expectation? Do we, in turn, expect others to live up to our expectations?

I believe that we will never really feel “good” about ourselves and our lives until we can feel good by turning within. Until we know who and what we are and respect our journey – all of it, and take responsibility for every twist and turn, we will remain at the whims of others’ opinions.

Who could possibly want to live this way? I do not. I want to put my head down on my pillow every night, knowing that I am a champion, that I have lived my life in all its glory, the best I could live it. I want to relish every victory and every mis-step, too. It’s all a part of who I am and my journey.

I have everything within me to be whatever it is I choose to be. As Ernest once wrote, “You are a Divine idea in the Mind of God…what could be more glorious than that.” A Divine idea doesn’t need approval. It comes stamped with approval from the Power that created the Cosmos.

We are all Champions. Super Bowl Sunday is considered by some an unofficial National Holiday. What better time to recognize the champion in all of us. We’ve all made it to the Super Bowl because we’ve all played the Game of Life in our most perfect and best way. And, we have the opportunity to improve that game, change that game, or start over whenever we choose to do so. The game continues and continues…

Love and Aloha,

Rev. Rita