“With man this is impossible. But with God, all things are possible.” I wrote this quote in the first blog of my book “What Do I Need to KNOW?” with this: “When I set about to do something and my finite mind says it is impossible, it is impossible. However, when I know with the Infinite all things are possible, then so it is.”  There are always infinite possibilities if I allow myself to believe in infinite possibilities. We are never stuck or stagnant unless we decide we are.

There is a song by Stephen Sondheim from the musical Merrily We Roll Along that has this lyric: “Something is stirring, shifting ground. It’s just begun. Edges are blurring all around and yesterday is done…”. The character goes on to let us know that “We are the movers. We are the shapers. We are the names in tomorrow’s papers.”  It is up to us.

With the many sorrows of late both globally and in my personal circle of friends, I know that something great is brewing. A change is coming. A shift is happening. It is calling for us all to be the movers and shapers. It is time to no longer look to the outside for our guidance and direction or to point our fingers out there to others to solve our problems. It’s time to clean up mentally speaking. It begins with us. Our challenges are our call to go deeper.

I am grateful and willing to do this work. It isn’t easy to look deep within and ask ourselves what is ours to do? It isn’t easy to stop the blaming or wondering what’s next in fear. However, I feel it is the only way to greet the new world that is waiting to be born in each of us. We have to stop looking at what is with the same eyes of dread and instead look at them as opportunities to change ourselves.

Ernest Holmes wrote, “If one will sit in quiet contemplation of good, as an inner experience, he will experience the good which he contemplates. He can do this only as he turns from that which is evil and dwells on the good alone. The Universe will not be divided.”

I have a new mantra for myself. It is: “Change your life by changing your perception of what is.” This moves me out of denial of what’s happening to looking deeper to the inner belly of the event. Always underneath, there is good hidden and it is a lack of self-love covers the good.

Self-love isn’t a flowery word, a selfish word in the sense that many use it as an excuse not to do it. Self-love means that we value, respect and honor ourselves, not coming from an egoic place, but from a place of honoring, respecting and valuing our very essence that is Divine. We are here to express that Divine self. When we have set backs in life, it is merely a time to be more of that Divine than we’ve ever been. We are on a path of inner discovery. We can take the path and live the glory or we can choose to lose ourselves in the conditional world of effects.

I listened to a motivational speaker, Eddie Pinero, who asked this question: “What is your world within?” What are you being called to be? Your world within is the truest expression of yourself and when you live from that place you are being your best self.

What the world needs now are more people being their best selves, living their world within. If we continue to look at the miseries of the world and see them just like that – miseries, we are creating more miseries. We live within a Law of Correspondence and Mental Equivalents. Misery loves company and attracts that company.

If we are in a bind right now or facing a challenge, can we move with the energy of a greater outcome? Can we envision a life other than the one that we are experiencing? Can we change our perception of what’s happening and see that maybe everything is not what it appears? Can we acknowledge that a power within ourselves has always carried us through and will continue to carry us through, no matter the storm?

We truly cannot step back far enough to know anyone’s journey but our own. And, by stepping back and looking at our own journey, stepping above it and giving ourselves an overview, we will see that the picture is bigger than what presents itself. Once we see that bigger picture for ourselves, we have the opportunity to answer its call. If it is very uncomfortable, life might be calling us to leave the comfort of now to a greater life,

We have to know what we stand for. We can’t take no for an answer. We have to have vision. If we do not, someone will swallow us up in theirs.

If we look at all the great leaders and shapers of a new destiny, they all had a vision with which they aligned themselves. They inspired others with that vision. Even though they might have had their lives threatened, were ostracized, they kept going. They knew that that inner call was more important than any fear, than their own physical life.

There is a quote by Ernest Holmes that I am adhering to today, the day of infinite possibilities. It goes like this. “ANYTHING YOU CAN DREAM OF is not too great for you to undertake, if it hurts no man and brings happiness and good into your life.”

Dr. Holmes put the caps in, not me. ANYTHING YOU CAN DREAM OF.” Do you have dreams? Not dreams based in physical reality, but dreams that will go forth no matter what you are experiencing physically. In times of the biggest challenges, great people have still showed up for themselves and the world.

Another thing I heard this morning from Eddie Pinero when talking about living the life of our dreams was “Move, adjust, Move adjust, repeat… Life calls for tiny adjustments.”

Yes, move with our dreams and then adjust when needed. We might have to do a lot of adjusting because things do show up that shift us, and if we do not go with those changes, if we do not adjust, we get caught in stagnation. Can you believe that the losses we dread most are the changes we needed most?

I can’t be afraid of losing anything, for I know that I am always lifted up to a higher place. What seems like a loss is the win I needed right then.

As I think about the forward movement of our spiritual center, I have to begin with the forward movement of my life, my spiritual evolution. I have to ask myself how I can become a greater me. I have to ask myself to step forward without necessarily knowing where that step forward will land me. I just have to step forward into the unknown with a clear vision of who I am and what my inner world is calling me to be.

I feel that I have found a great teaching. It has filled my life with expansion, wonder and amazing experiences and people. This teaching has guided me to understand that I am responsible for my life and everything that happens in it. I am the master of my ship. I am looking out from consciousness and what I see is what I have created. I have to remember I have peopled my world, written the script and will write the final ending.

How do I want to live? What will I accept and what will I not accept? Why do I get up in the morning? What drives me to feel energized? What are my gifts? Am I using them? Am I sitting on the sidelines or am I living fully in the experience of life?

“It’s our time, breathe it in, worlds to change and worlds to win. Our dreams coming through, me and you, now, me and you.”

Love and Aloha

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

My new book “What Do I Need to KNOW?” is available now on AMAZON