As we begin 2020, it seems like things are getting worse. We are at war and continue to be at war, posing greater and greater threats to life on this planet. Many of us are in personal turmoil, experiencing health challenges, the death of loved ones and poverty. Our planet’s health is at stake and we despair that we will not  be able to reverse the damage that we have done. We do not trust the world we live in or its people. We are afraid. We wonder, “What will become of us?’

This is the bleakest picture that many of us live with and I totally understand it. I feel the pain of the world. I have experienced loss. I want things to be different. I wonder if we will experience the 6th mass extinction. I want to live to see a world that is at peace, and I wonder if I will. I worry about our children and grandchildren and future generations.  However, I know something else.

As Charles Dickens once wrote, “It was the best of times, it was the worst of times, it was the age of wisdom, it was the age of foolishness, it was the epoch of belief, it was the epoch of incredulity, it was the season of light, it was the season of darkness, it was the spring of hope, it was the winter of despair.”

This is not the first time, we’ve been in this place. How do these opposites play out now. I understand that everything comes from consciousness and what has brought us up to this point is that consciousness. I also understand that I have a choice. I might not be able to change the wheels of causation that we have all created together, but I can change the wheels of causation within myself, which affects how I will move through this experience.  I would like to share my plan, which is activated as of now:

• become radically compassionate
• deepen my spiritual practice – meditate, pray unceasingly and affirm the Truth about everyone and everything
• love myself even more
• practice forgiveness
• practice visualization, seeing the world and its people whole and at peace
• clean up every area of my life, every relationship, every inner storm
• trust my intuition and follow it the first time I am nudged
• be spiritually socially active, assisting where I can do so
• As Mother Theresa said, “Grow where I am planted.” Do what I can where I am. Help those in front of me
• stay present, stay calm, and never give up.

Life did not dump us on earth to figure it out without the tools. We have tools. The most important one is: To remember who we are. We are not mere mortals. We are Powerful beyond measure. This physical experience on the material plane called earth is a spiritual experience. What is ours to know? What is ours to give?  Where do we need to love more?

Ernest Holmes, mystic and founder of Science of Mind, once wrote, “God is always God. No matter what our emotional storm, or what our objective situation may be, there is always something hidden in the inner being that has never been violated. We may stumble, but always there is that Eternal Voice, forever whispering within our ear, that thing which causes the eternal quest, that thing which forever sings and sings.“

I invite us all to listen for that voice that whispers within our individual ear. As we look out at our objective situation, remember there is always something hidden that has never be violated by anything. That is what we need to cling to now as we become spiritual warriors. Yes, we might stumble. We very well might see the worst get worse. However, at the same time, we have something that can never be extinguished – that is our Eternal Quest, our forever expanding life, spiraling upward through the chaos, taking these challenges and turning them to wisdom for ourselves and contributing a powerful consciousness of love through it all. We are here, so it must be ours to do.

“When we are no longer able to change a situation – we are challenged to change ourselves.” – Viktor E. Frankl

Love and Aloha,

Rev. Rita