My journey has taught me to see life's experiences not only as opportunities for growth, but as gifts we're privileged to share with others on their own paths. We are all connected at the Source.

All the power of the universe resides within us. Just as the acorn has within itself everything it needs to become a giant oak tree, we too have all we need to become who we're meant to be. Many have fallen asleep to this truth and need only the help of another to awaken them. We were never meant to do “this life” alone.

Finding Our Way Back to What We Are was born from one of those quiet, intuitive moments that arrive unannounced. One evening, I was paging through my collection of daily reflection books, thinking of a friend I was walking alongside on his recovery journey. He carried significant religious trauma and had long struggled to find a concept of "God" he could call his own. That evening, I found several recovery-related readings I wanted to share with him, but each one was steeped in language that was religious, dogmatic, or theological in nature — the very language that would have pulled him back into decades of shame taught to him by people who never questioned the judgmental, punishing image of God they themselves had inherited. In my frustration with the text, I had a moment of clarity. I thought, "Rick, if you have a problem with how these books are written, why not write your own?" And so I did.

Many people long for spiritual connection yet feel distanced by language, doctrine, or past experiences. The word God, for many, has become burdened with fear, exclusion, or painful memories. Yet what it points toward has never been confined to language, gender, doctrine, or form.

In these pages, rather than the word “God,” I choose to use the word “LOVE,” not as an idea, but as the living source of all that is. LOVE is both beyond us and within us, both vast and intimate, both personal and universal. LOVE has no gender and every gender, no boundaries, and no opposite. To speak of LOVE is to speak of the very essence from which we come, in which we live, and from which we can never be separated, even when we forget.

Each day of this new book offers a reflection drawn from timeless wisdom shared across cultures, traditions, and lived experience. These reflections are not meant to convince or convert. They are meant to invite you into honesty, awareness, forgiveness, compassion, and a deeper sense of belonging.

You will also find space each day under the heading “What I’m Noticing Today.” This is not a place to get it right. It is a place to be real. You may write a few words, many pages in an accompanying notebook, or nothing at all. The invitation asks only this: to notice, to turn quietly inward, and to listen without judgment.

This book does not ask you to believe anything. It asks only that you pause, breathe, and consider what resonates as true for you. Take what serves you. Leave what does not. Return as often as you like.

May these pages meet you with kindness.

May they remind you of your infinite worth.

May they help you remember that you came from LOVE and that you ARE what you came from. You could never be separate from LOVE, for you ARE LOVE.