Even if we have lived in muddied or muted hues for many years, we can enter into the colors of our spirit at any moment we choose. Life is forgiving, kind, and regenerative. Our choices determine if we see all the colors of the rainbow or only black. No matter what your world looks like at this moment, you can always make a new choice that will bring the truth of who you are into clearer focus.

God is not intimidated by our past, and neither must we allow any dark memory to intrude on the light of the moment. There is no life except in the moment. And there is no destiny other than full self-expression, which always begins with a gentle step toward your heart's desire.

Each of us began our adventure with a wonderful vision and most of us, at one time or another, have all been distracted from it. Family, work, addictions, loss of a job, illness, loneliness or something else may have clouded our vision and kept us feeling as though we were powerless to change anything – let alone our thoughts. We forget the magnificent beings that we truly are and wonder why we are life isn’t painted with the full spectrum of colors. If we paint with only black, why would we think our picture would be golden? If we are angry all the time, why would we think our life would be happy? Our thoughts are the brushes we use to paint on the canvas of our lives. And we are the Michelangelos of our own lives.

With the movement towards spirit in the workplace, movies like “What the Bleep” and “Celestine Prophecy” and bookshelves full of “how to” books, we are waking up to the truth of who we are – beloved children of the Universe (God, Goddess, Source, Spirit, Buddha, whatever noun corresponds to your belief system). Granted some of us are doing so willingly and others are doing so in response to an illness, death of a loved one or because of something we saw on television, read in the newspaper or found out about from the internet. Often it the same thing that diverted our vision that brings us back into our hearts and allows more of our inner beauty to shine forth. This in turn adds more richness and gives more color to our lives.

As each of us claims the right to live our vision, we bring everyone closer to his or her dreams. The difficulties we overcame got us to where we are today because we developed our “spiritual muscles” which will move us even farther forward love, peace, harmony, abundance and self-acceptance. Each fear and false idol we face and cast aside clears a pathway for all who follow. Our life is calling us, and we are ready to answer.

Our goal on the path of awakening is not to change who we are, but to remember who we are.

There is nothing in the outer world that makes us anything; it’s what we are inside that determines who we are and what we create in our life. Every person who lives is gifted with an inner beauty that is powerful, attractive, and uniquely lovable. The invitation before us is not to import more beauty through manipulating the outer world, but to release more radiance by opening to our inner world. We hold a vast untapped potential for fantastic excellence in all aspects of our life. To bring those unique qualities to the world is the gift that we came to bestow.

There is magic in attuning ourselves to our highest vision of who we are. I believe that when we look upon ourselves as beautiful (even if this image does not match the one we seem to be playing out physically) we are seeing ourselves as we truly are. To behold the radiance of our soul is a gift of a lifetime. Every soul is beautiful, but it is a rare individual who holds firm to the memory of the soul's reality in the face of the illusion that the body determines our attractiveness.

Spirit knows us not by our acts or by the size of our waist, the amount of money in our wallet or the kind of car we drive, but by our essence. When we align our vision with God's view of our golden nature, we see our self and the world anew.