It is our last day here — last day on the Island, last day at The Haven, last day taking part in Come Alive.

Last days are new beginnings. As we complete the circle of our learning in Come Alive, we open up to the ripple of our being connected forever in this special time and place we have shared. And in this ending, a beginning opens up with all its limitless possibilities for new opportunities to begin again. Always begin again.

As I begin again, I think about what has shifted, what has changed, what is different within me and and around me and know that in my difference I will continue to expand the me I am in the world. Making, being, celebrating my difference, your difference, our difference to create a world of love, of joy and laughter, of peace and harmony. A world where dreams come true as we the dreamers awaken to the wonder of expressing how we are in a world that sees us through loving eyes as who we truly are — different yet the same.

I have loved this experience. The digging in, encountering, exploring, acknowledging and enlivening the differences I feel when I try something… different.

Having coached for so many years in Choices and taken many different programs a friend asked me the other day — but why do you keep doing it? Why do you keep wanting to make yourself better?

It’s not about ‘better’, I replied — though better is always nice! It’s about deepening my experience of me and with me in the world. It’s about gaining understanding, knowledge, awareness of how I encounter different people and circumstances in the world and living up to my true essence, free, alive and open to being me in all kinds of weather, all different circumstances in all my many ways.

It is my last day here on Gabriola Island. For the past six days I have been sheltered, supported, and embraced by 14 fellow travellers looking to find themselves in a world made different because they are present in it.

In my presence here, I have been made different, and made a difference. I have received gifts and shared my gifts so that we could all travel together into the depths of our inner beauty, light and darkness, joy and sorrow without fearing who we are does not make a difference.

We all make a difference. We are all different. Yet the same.

We are all human beings on the journey of our live time.

May we all know that in our journey through life, the difference we make is the ripple of our passing through time and space embracing those we meet in the beauty and wonder of who we are.

May your day be filled with the light of love, the joy of acceptance and the beauty of who you are shining brightly in the world around you.

Namaste.