In order to wrap this journey up, you would think I need a physical healing. Here’s what I’ve come to understand about that perception. Yes, it is true, I would like the bubble in my eye to disappear, for my retina to be totally restored to wholeness so that I can go on with my life. However, what I’ve come to learn is that is not the way it works. Life is already happening and I am already living it. I am already healed. There is nothing to wait for, including a total physical healing. Wouldn’t it be terrible to put life on hold, waiting for a better time. We’d more than likely be waiting forever, because there will always be more and better times to experience. Right now is all that matters. Recognizing our wholeness is the key to healing.

So, what do you do while you are experiencing some not so comfortable things? My only answer is gratitude. I believe it is the most healing of agents that there is. Gratitude puts us in a state of welcome, love and surrender. Gratitude can be expressed without anything for which to be grateful. It is a feeling we are all capable of feeling. Gratitude means all our prayers are already answered, and we are thrilled to be alive and living our life just as we are. Gratitude impresses the unlimited Field of Intelligence and Love with the energy that we are already whole and complete and gives us more of the same.

Is it always easy to do this? I would be lying if I said yes. It takes practice and it is a practice. Any skill takes practice and that is the journey – our hero’s journey. A hero is not measured by his or her great physical accomplishments in the world. A hero is measured, as they said in the Disney film – Hercules – by the size of his/her heart and ability to love.

We are all experiencing our own hero’s journey and I invite us to surrender to the adventure. We only live this particular physical experience once. We get to decide how much of it we want to enjoy and how much of it we want to suffer through. No matter where we are in our own journey right now, we have the opportunity to open up to gratitude, surrender and faith. We have the opportunity to trust that all is well, and that we have everything within us to bring us safely back from our journey with a greater consciousness to share with our world. The more of us that can do this, the more the world will evolve past conflicts, war and suffering. Our journey matters.

Love and Aloha,

Rev. Rita Andriello-Feren, Spiritual Director CSL Kaua`i, Spiritual Coach