My Declaration of Integrity | Rabbi Shefa Gold

For my 70th [birthday], I decided to write a Declaration of Integrity and have it be witnessed by a few beloveds in a ritual on my porch by the ocean. The ocean is also my witness and reminder of my own vast nature, with its ebbs and flows. There are somethings that I KNOW, but when I am blown by the wind of the Reality-consensus, I don’t always live from that knowing. And then it feels like I am lacking in integrity. … I want to be held accountable to what I know.

I know that I am a soul.

As a soul I know that nothing can truly harm me. There is nothing to fear.

I have come here embodied in this form to feel all of it — the most magnificent joy and the abject misery… while knowing that these feelings are meant to expand and deepen the knowing of my infinite nature through experience.

I know that I can feel my feelings and not be lost in them, but rather use those feelings as energy, that can help me become whole, and bring beauty and depth to others.

I have come here to this form to become an expression of the beauty and magnificence of the infinite realms which are my true home. I have come to bridge the gap between my essential nature and the particular forms of this life.

I know that it is possible to meet every challenge with joy.

I know that I am here to love and be loved. Living from this purpose, I am on the lookout for opportunities to learn the lessons of love- to find out what blocks the flow of love and what opens that flow.

I know there is a radiance within me. My commitment is to remember to shine.