I am making a decision to rekindle my childlike wonder. To define what this means, I look to the dictionary: “to excite, stir up, or rouse anew.” Call it a New Year’s intention if you like, but I’ve decided to be more curious about life. Yes, I liken this rekindling of childlike wonder to curiosity. Nothing in my life is set in stone. The ending of Nora’s life here on the earth plane at such an early age is proof enough of that.  I am ever open to learning, expanding and embracing new ideas.

After returning from our Sunday celebration service yesterday, I realized that the passing of Nora and everything that followed it did knock the wind out of my sails. I don’t think I even realized that it had happened. I was just moving with the experience, doing what was mine to do. The process of assimilating back to life hadn’t occurred yet.

I am slowing coming back to myself and processing it all in a whole new way. It started to occur last week when I went to visit someone in the hospital. As I turned the corner to enter the hospital room, I had a minor case of what I think is called PTSD. In that moment, I realized how much of an impact Nora’s passing had on me, even more than I knew. I am grateful to know this and to know I have the tools to process at an even deeper level.

What does it look like? Well, that’s where the childlike wonder comes in. I must look at everything new, even death. I am willing to open up to understanding myself in relationship to death, accept my own impending death and by doing so, live even more fully. I know it is possible because I have decided that it is. It is actually exciting.

So, beginning today, I am going to start by looking at everything and everyone from a standpoint of new. It reminds me of an exercise we did in one of my college theater classes, when after a guided meditation, we went down on our knees and crawled around the room examining everything as if we’d never seen it before. Releasing judgements and preconceived notions allowed us to be in awe and discovery. It was a new point of creation with no past baggage.

This is what I must do now. Release any past baggage. By past baggage, I do not mean people or experiences. I mean the ideas and beliefs that are stale and hold me back in any way. This includes ideas that are not serving me that were birthed because of experiences I had.  I think the great Master Jesus said, “Be as a little child…”

This morning’s reading in the Science of Mind was perfect: “To learn how to think is to learn how to live, for our thoughts go into a medium that is Infinite in its ability to do and to be. By thinking, we can bring into our experience whatsoever we desires if we think correctly and becomes a living embodiment of our thoughts.” (Gender change by Rita)

So, if I can think anew like a child, release my expectations about people, places and things and just take a deep breath of fresh air, releasing limitation, I can bring anything into my experience and field of knowing. Life is unfolding perfectly is really the only thing I need to know, trust and have faith in. Everything else is a mystery and an awe-filled discovery, if I allow it to be.

Love and Aloha,

Rev. Rita