Key West has come through another Fantasy Fest. Hopefully, it was all everyone expected it to be. I reflect on my many Fantasy Fests from doing the “Duval Crawl,” to escaping out of town after viewing the parade from the family corner at Southard and Whitehead Streets. The last few years I chose to not enter the crazy zone at all and I’d spent a quiet evening at home instead. Fantasy Fest is one of the milestones that I can use to look back on my own growth and evolution.

We all have milestones- weddings, births, graduations, funerals, hurricanes and more that remind us where we were at those times and where we’ve come since. Our destination is the same in the end. We all go home to God and leave this time in Earth-school for the next generation. All experience viewed through the lens of compassion and forgiveness provides lessons that stimulate self-awareness, help us to grow and move on. We learn from them, change our attitudes and behavior so we don’t have to repeat them again in the future or we continue to attract them until the lesson is learned. Our lessons come in all forms, sometimes very painful. When my youngest sister died of a malignant brain tumor before her 27^th birthday, I thought I couldn’t go on. Yet, this experience propelled me into a search for the meaning of life, death and life after death that would never have happened without it.

Two of the biggest obstacles to growth and moving forward are shame and guilt. They’re excuses to hate ourselves today for something we did or didn’t do in the past. They’re lies, errors in judgment, distorted thinking that says there’s something wrong with us. It helps to share these feelings with a trusted confidant and get them out of the closet. This allows the repetitive thoughts to be interrupted and makes room for a more loving and nurturing point of view. Our most embarrassing moments can be approached with a sense of humor and teach us to turn in a more positive direction.

Let’s accept our mistakes as inevitable parts of this adventure called life. As beginners, we’re ready to face new challenges knowing that every action includes the risk of making a mistake. When we become experts, our perfectionism turns mistakes into shame. At every crossroad the voice of our ego and higher self offer up a plan. It’s up to us to choose which one to follow and this choice determines how quickly we’ll graduate and move on to new lessons. The awareness we gain brings us closer to our truth within.

We can make up our minds to be peaceful and let go of agonizing over how we should have responded to experiences in our past. Changing our perspective on any situation will nurture our freedom. Eckart Tolle’s book, “A New Earth,” says “A New Heaven is the emerging of a transformed state of human consciousness and A New Earth is its reflection in the physical realm.”

Instead of boulders that block our way, milestones can be the impetus for our greatest growth. We’re given opportunities to offer something good to anyone we encounter. Greeting everyone with the presence of love and acceptance can awaken the same in them and bring healing to ourselves and the planet. 

Please write to me at sandyislands@hawaii.rr.com and feel free to browse previous articles at www.sandyislands.com