I declare this Self-Appreciation Day. I am feeling a lot of gratitude lately – real gratitude – the kind that just washes over you and through you for no reason at all. Nothing particular brought it on. I just really appreciate my life.

This brings me to my life’s journey. I appreciate everything I’ve been through that brought me today – the good, the bad, and the ugly. It was all necessary. When I say this, I do not mean I might not make a different choice today, but it was all necessary because it all brought me back to myself at the time I experienced it and afterwards.

So why Self-Appreciation Day? It’s important to appreciate ourselves. We’ve each been through a lot. It couldn’t have been easy being squeezed and pushed through that dark birth canal out of the warmth of being totally taken care of and bursting into a bright, cold experience. Whether loving arms were waiting for us or not, it was still a big change.

Ever since, I’ve been putting it back together without a memory of what came before. I’ve had faith and trust and I’ve walked the path in the best way I could in every moment. I think we could all say the same for ourselves. As Don Miguel Ruiz says, “we were always doing our best.” And, we continue to do our best. Why? Because we were and are acting from the information we have had at the time. We might have been ignorant of a better way, but as Emma Curtis Hopkins wrote, “we were always reaching for our Good.” That’s what we do. Translate the word “good” for “‘God,” and it makes a lot of sense. Whether we acknowledge it or not, there is “something” that expresses Life in all forms.

So what will I do on Self-Appreciation Day? I’ll just take lots of breaths and acknowledge the journey. I’ll do my best to stay in the present moment and treat myself with tenderness and love. I invite us all, if we are not already do it, to do the same. Why? Because I believe that the world will be a better place today because we did.

Love and Aloha,

Rev. Rita