Today, I received word that a friend’s relative is about to enjoy the last of his time here on earth. I was struck by the finality one must feel when facing this moment. I also thought how blessed it is to know that one’s time is limited. This person is making sure to do all he can with family and friends before he leaves.

Well, truly, we all have the same opportunity. We all have a round trip ticket from here to eternity. Although for the most part we do not know when the return train is leaving this station, we still have the opportunity to make the most of our life here on earth.

I know when I was younger, I didn’t think too much of the reality of death. I understood it on a theoretical level, but not really deeply. Now at age 65, with more than two-thirds of my life gone, I am thinking a little more deeply about it. I am not thinking about it morbidly, but I am realizing that I want to make the most of my time here. I don’t want to put things off and I want to live each day to the fullest.

What does living life to the fullest mean? I think sometimes we confuse it with taking trips and buying things and completing books, etc. These are all good, but I think it is more than any of these things. For me, it is going within more deeply and looking out from that place. I believe when I really get to know myself, I do love at a deeper level. I am more deeply satisfied and happy.

Living my purpose every day is also important to me. What could my purpose be? Is it to build the Center for Spiritual Living Kaua’i into its next incarnation? It is more than that even! Living my purpose, for me, is truly being myself. Letting myself truly know who I am and sharing that person with others. This can be a challenging thing because I think many of us guard ourselves and hide certain aspects of ourselves. What if we were to just really let it all out. That would include all that we have learned through trial and error and all that we still want to learn. It would be our raw authentic selves.

There is so much to living life to the fullest. It is paying attention to everything. It is getting really involved in life. It is stripping away the ego and need to be right. It is just being in the quiet and being okay with that. It is knowing that I am never alone even when I am by myself.

It is so much more even than this. When all the great masters and mystics said, “Know Thyself,” they were giving us the secret to life. They had crossed the threshold into that knowing and returned again to let us know that we had the key to everything with those two words.

“Know Thyself” will be etched on the entrance to Center or Spiritual Living Kaua’i in our new Global home. I am trusting that in the 2.5 years that it will take to acquire that new home that I will being etching those words from a higher consciousness within myself.

Love and Aloha,

Rev. Rita