Last night a friend and I attended a Red Hat Society dinner meeting in a restaurant in Coquitlam. About half way through dinner, as I looked around the room at 30 different red hats and the women wearing them, I just had to smile. We are all so unique and beautiful.

We learned there are now 40 thousand chapters globally -- Over a million members! The movement has grown from a woman’s idea using a poem and a red hat as a gift to her best friend, and then other friends, just 5 years ago!! Now there are Red Hat sections in Hallmark Cards and other stores!

Now who was it that sang that song “Girls just want to have fun!” ?

I believe this movement became so popular not just because women of a certain age wanted to have more fun in their lives, but because Life wants to flaunt Itself authentically and outrageously. As children we play and laugh and think nothing of it … now we take our lives so seriously we have to schedule in play!

Another reason is that there is an unconditional acceptance of who we are and our age. It doesn’t matter if one has a loud laugh, is married or divorced, is working or not, is slender or voluptuous, blond, brown, red or grey - indeed, the idea is to be authentically alive older women who just want to have fun!!

Do you have to wait until 50 to live life authentically and unconditionally? No way! The time is NOW! My teacher, the late Rev. Helen Street used to say that the belief humanity has that this dimension is a school where we’re enrolled to learn spiritual lessons is wrong. We are all the Spirit we are ever going to be – we’re here to learn how to be fully human. Rev. Carol Carnes wrote me in an e-mail the other day:
“Oh Yeah, I am on that page of us all being fully human… compassionate, passionate, alive, juicy, feeling, reverent, in awe ...laughing at ourselves, aware of something greater, creative and playful! To me, that is the whole thing. .. .we have always been spiritual but human is a whole new opportunity to experience God....”

If anything, the Truth is – if this is school – this is recess!! Let’s Play!!

Blessings of laughter, Rev. Angelica

SPIRITUAL MIND TREATMENT
Oh Great Spirit of Joy, fill my heart with laughter!
With a grateful heart, I realize the Truth of my being. All there is – is God. The Divine Energy of Life that fills the atmosphere of the Universe and more. It is the Source of all things, the animating Lifeforce in all things. It is my own Self.
Today I let go of my need to take life so seriously. This does not mean I am in denial of the people or events that need my compassionate presence. It does mean that I am willing and ready to experience it all authentically. I am co-creating my experiences with Divine Energy, and from this moment on, I choose to create them in the Spirit of Joy.
I can now laugh at myself and the things I have created with ease. How great and powerful I am!! How delightful that I can choose at every moment to move into the center of my being where Joy resides, and create again.
I am so grateful that I have uncovered Joy in my life – it is my natural state of being. I know this because I know Joy is an attribute of God … and whatever God is, I am. I celebrate Life today!! And so it is.