I think it was around 2009 or so when I wrote a blog called the Parable of the Oranges. It was about my experience when I was out running and observed a man carrying a large bag of oranges. He had picked them from a tree I had been coveting on my runs every morning. It stood in a neighbor’s yard and I had wished that I could pick some of those oranges. Because I don’t believe in walking on people’s property, I never did. I didn’t even have the courage to walk up to the door of that neighbor and ask if I could pick an orange or two.

Well, the man passed me and offered me some of the oranges he had picked. At first I didn’t take any and then when he urged me I took one. He looked at me as if he couldn’t believe it and urged me again to take some. I only took another. He grumbled something and waddled on, leaving me standing with my two oranges.

The discovery I had about the experience was about my ability to receive. The ending to the story was me landing on Kaua`i in the middle of an orchard of oranges everywhere I turn. There is another chapter of this story that took place yesterday. I now live on a property that has several full orange, lemon, tangerines, limes, and grapefruit trees. I am indeed in the middle of my own orchard. Yesterday, I offered some citrus to a young man who was helping to move some furniture out of our garage. He left with a huge box of citrus. He most definitely did not just take one. I took notice of this, and also of the fact that I was now in the giver position.

Why am I writing about this today? I am writing this because this story tell me how life is always evolving and how we are always changing and expanding. The citrus story represents consciousness. My life is definitely not in that restrictive consciousness that it once was. I am more ready to receive than ever before/ I am living in an orchard of plenty, and in receiving, I know I always have more to give. I am no longer that girl who over more than a decade ago lived in lack and limitation.

Fruit, to me, represents the bounty of Mother Nature ever willing to give of itself to us. We cannot own it or restrict it. We can only nurture the Nature within ourselves and take care of the Nature all around us by appreciating it and respecting it. Our lives are an open field but we cannot truly enjoy it, until we move ourselves into the field of giving and receiving and allowing. We must allow the Universe to give to us.

I believe that is how I ended up living in my own orchard and also how I am continuing to expand that orchard. We are only truly living when we are expressing the fullness of the “I Am” consciousness. It can happen right now. It might seem like a miracle, but really, for me, it has been a gradual expansion that suddenly bloomed almost, because I have become aware of it. Just like yesterday when that young man walked off with a box of citrus that I had offered him. I have come full circle.

Love and Aloha,

Rev. Rita Andriello-Feren, Co-Founding Director CSL Kaua`i and the Institute of Magnificence and Author of “What Do I Need to KNOW? 101 Thoughts That Changed My Life” and “This Thing Called Treatment,” both available on Amazon.