become aware of its existence, we attain a peace and bliss that go beyond words and understanding.


Reverend Judith Andrade My Ordination Journey.


O


ver the weekend of October 1-2 2011, the second


of my firsts came to fruition. Imagine at my great young middle age, having the opportunity to participate in something new, something never done before with an amazing group of people I never met and doing it for the second time in less than three months! I thought my time in Hollywood was awesome but my ordination as an interfaith minister was as challenging as it gets.


Although I had been ordained in


1999 through The International Assembly of Spiritual Healers and Earth Stewards, I didn’t start my divinity degree until 2002, when I realized a dream to build a new and unique ministry for and by women. The additional training added a wonderful dimension to the work. The whole plan started to blossom in 2004 only to have it shattered with the sudden and unexpected death of my co-collaborator, dear friend and business partner.


Everything was put on hold. For the


first three years I was shattered, feeling that perhaps it wasn’t meant to be. Then one day, I woke up, like Buddha and wondered why I thought all the dreams we shared as friends should end. Some dreams die with people who share our goals, some have to be adjusted and some should go on in order to honour the person and keep their spirit alive. This dream we had of helping women and men to overcome trauma and childhood abuse was worthy and needed. Our vision was not for ourselves but for how we could help others.


So I started on projects which


clearly got me back on the right track. I completed and published two novels, The Will To Be True and In The Shadow of the Blackbird and a third, Suspect, Love. As I completed my third book, Suspect, Love I was offered a chance to be ordained with AIHT, where I completed my degree, something which was not available at the time I graduated.


How do they connect? The novels


relate stories of strong women who have overcome childhood traumas and succeeded where they thought the status quo was the only option. On completing the books and having them published, I was inspired to follow my


global paths and fulfill those dormant dreams.


Change and challenge are always


wonderful exercises which allow us to observe the strength of the human spirit. As humans we are blessed with the ability to look back at where we started and see where we reach, then use that impetus to move us forward. What will always please me is the chance I had to be first again and pave the way for others. I am mindful that in these later years of my life I must follow the example and goals, set as a standard for achievement, by my pioneering grandmother way back in 1927. If I emulate her courage even for a day, I hope I have made her proud of me.


MY BARN HAVING BURNED TO THE GROUND


Japanese poet Masahide so eloquently and simply states a fact and yet within those few words a profound lesson for us in how to see life. “My barn having burned to the ground, I can now see the moon.”


N


o one is spared pain however suffering is a choice. Each of us on this journey as spiritual beings having a human experience will experience what we call pain. We will experience any number


of possible sources of pain from a break up, a loss of employment; grieve the death of a loved one, to a fall scraping our knee and some medical professional’s diagnosis of health related dis-ease. Yet it is important to remember that though the emotional response may be raw and painful, we are the ones who determine if it becomes a source of suffering!


When we stand in our power we see the event for what it is – an event,


something free of judgments, it simply is what it is and it is we who impose the labels of good, bad, horrible, and something to feel is a shame. When we take the time to see through the lens of spirit we are better able to release judgments and simply sit in the experience where we allow the emotions and thoughts to rise to the surface where we are able to give them the space and time to heal. It is here that we can raise our eyes from the burning rubble of the barn, still smoking and smelling of regret and pain as our eyes take in the night sky and we behold the beauty of the moon illuminating the darkness!


Each of the newly ordained reverends has a story to tell, a barn that has


burned down, as do you. How wonderful it is to know that no matter the pain or the location of the barn, we are all standing under the same sky looking at the same moon and in that we are connected and are not alone.


7


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