Our theme at CSL Kaua’i this August is Rise Up and Surrender!” This is the perfect month for me, as I prepare for my one person show on August 29 and 30. Rise Up and Surrender, Rita! We picked the theme purposefully because Patrick is also running the marathon. “Rise Up and Surrender, Patrick.”

What is it that I need to surrender to in order to entertain you all in the most magnificent way on August 29 and 30. The answer for Rita: A lot of old beliefs and place within me that still want to hold onto those beliefs. I need to let go of the old and move into the new. This show is about finding my voice. Ernest Holmes once wrote, that “You cannot heal anyone of his trouble, if it is the result of some mental attitude which he will not surrender.”

Yes, believe me, I have lots of mental attitudes that I need to surrender right now and I am in the process of doing just that. You’ll hear all about it on August 29 and 30. Life is a journey of continual growth, expansion and surrender. No one gets out of this, even a minister – me.

I know that for any of us, we cannot live the life we say we want for ourselves without adhering to the Law of Surrender. What is that Law? It means to give it up to a higher Authority. We are that higher Authority. It is all within us. It says we must give ourselves up to our Divinity and trust that when we speak our word with faith and conviction that there is a power that responds to us.

Rehearsal time is a lonely time because it is an inner process of discovery. Over the last couple of weeks as I struggled through my rehearsals, I discovered what was missing. I realized that what I was missing was my surrender to my success. Because I am practiced in this Science, I spotted it after some denial at first, I was able to go in and surrender to my commitment, knowing that as I did, the rest of the path would become clearer and clearer.

Do you remember the scene from Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom, when he has to cross the abyss and there is no walkway there besides the one he’s told will appear when he first steps out. One step at a time, the path appears, as he puts his foot down. This is a perfect example of surrender. It epitomizes what I as a singer feel as I move out onto the stage. Live performance has that same feeling of the unknown, no matter how much you practice.

Ernest Holmes once wrote, “The man/woman who dares to fling their thought out into Universal Intelligence, with the assurance of one who realizes their divine nature and its relation to the Universe – and dares to claim all there is – will find an ever-creative good at hand to aid him. The Universe will honor his request.”

So, the question becomes, do you know who you are? Do I know what I am? Do I know that this little person I sometimes call Rita is not doing the work? Do I truly believe that the Power and Presence of the Divine is what I am and that as I move my intention for success out as Law that the Universe has to respond to me?

If not, before I do anything or say I want something, I better go there first and work that out.  Another one of my favorite Ernest Holmes quote, “The person who can throw himself with a complete abandon into the Limitless Sea of Receptivity, having cut loose from all apparent moorings, is the one who will always receive the greatest reward.”

Can we throw ourselves out with complete abandon, letting go of those moorings of stale beliefs that no longer serve us, enter the Quantum Field of the Unknown and begin to paint our own picture of our life from a blank canvas of unlimited possibility? Yes, we can. It is totally worth it to live from that place. What is our other choice? I’m not willing to stay where I am, static and unchanging. There is always more. There are always more bridges to cross and higher levels of consciousness. I am not the same today as I was yesterday, nor will I be the same tomorrow. I love the challenge called life lived in an elevated state of consciousness that is always pushing me forward.

Surrender is not giving up our free will. It is not submitting to something lesser than us that seems stronger in the moment. Surrender is freely giving up our small self to an ever-increasing larger self and totally expecting those results to show up as our life. It’s letting go and letting God. It’s knowing even in the midst of adversity that something has our back and is carrying us through.

It reminds me of the time of transition when I had my babies, I was willing to give up my life for the life of my child in that moment.  I let go. I got an amazing gift – a baby. We all have this opportunity and the power to surrender and give birth to our newborn creations in every moment.

Love and Aloha,

Rev. Rita

Tickets for “How I Came to Me…n”