As I walk through my beautiful home here on Kaua’i, something wells up in me without any pushing or urging of my own. It is Gratitude. I’m not grateful for a particular thing, but for my life as a whole. I am amazed and grateful for all the changes that I have experienced over the last seven years.

Yes, it has been a short seven years since I passed my ministerial panels in Monterey, California and became a Science of Mind Minister. In these seven years, I’ve traveled from struggle and survival to thriving in one of the most beautiful places on earth. I know that my whole life experience has been created by putting the Principles of the Science of Mind and Spirit into practice and working them. The feeling of Gratitude I’ve always had for life no matter what I’ve experienced has been the energy that fueled me.

I am astounded at all the help that is at hand for all of us, in the way of teachers, books, classes and life experience. We are in a school that offers us the greatest degree of all right here where we are if we want to take advantage of it. The degree is in Expanded Consciousness and Manifestation of our True Selves. The school doesn’t end at graduation either; in fact, the school continues.

Today, I am just grateful for all my teachers, all my experiences – low and high, and for myself for putting in the time necessary to grow and expand. I am grateful for the Science of Mind and Spirit.

The other day, we took a boat trip with our granddaughter on the Napali Coast. I marveled at how far we’d come from struggling actors in Los Angeles in 1999. I give gratitude for all of it. And, I know that as I continue to humbly study, be open to change, listen to my intuition and give and receive love, that this journey will just get deeper and more expanded.

I am just really grateful today. I’ve learned that when all else fails that Gratitude is the one emotion that we can count on. If we can be grateful for life every step of the way, no matter what we are experiencing, if we can go to gratitude when we can’t feel anything else, we are assured peace of mind and the fullness of life.

Love and Aloha,

Rev. Rita