Last night, we opened our 6th Annual Sacred Journey – the Journey of Childlike Wonder. Our first evening is a ritual of celebration and stating our intentions for the Journey. It is a time to come together and get to know each other and begin the bounding process as a community, as well and reaching into ourselves to find our own inner journey.

I love rituals, and I find that they are and always have been an important part of my life. I grew up Catholic, and although I do not miss the Religious doctrine of Catholicism, I remember when I first left, I missed the rituals. I began to look for other ways of expressing myself in that manner.

Why is ritual important? I don’t think there is a time in our development as a species that we have not had rituals – from baptisms to weddings to funerals and everything in-between, we have found ways to come together and express ourselves as community. Even the event of going to a public movie and experiencing its magic is a ritual. Baseball games and sports events are rituals. Anything that brings us consciously together as a community while allowing us to express our individuality is a ritual.

I am grateful for this week – the Sacred journey – to delve deeper into the idea of ritual and how it can enhance my life and those attending this Journey.

Today, we go as a group to the Birthing Stones of Kaua’i, where the ancient royalty gave birth to their children. Kumu Sabra Kauka will lead is in discussion about the rituals of the past here on the Island. We will incorporate those rituals into our own birth as spiritual beings of childlike wonder, while deepening our community relationship at the same time.

I love the idea that we can be born again and again, not in the fundamental dogmatic way, but by actually celebrating the idea that we can drop the past and bring ourselves to this moment, discovering something new and exciting. This is what this Journey is about to me. We must become as little children again and again. This isn’t about acting like children, but more thinking from a standpoint of innocence not jaded by bitter experience, but realizing that all those experiences can make for a richer now.

I am grateful for this new day and the discoveries it will bring.

Love and Aloha,

Rev. Rita