Last week I was fortunate to spend time participating in Mardi Gras along with Fat Tuesday with family and friends in Southern California, some of which was celebrated at Disneyland and Downtown Disney. It was a time of festivities, childlike joy, wonder and playfulness as well as acknowledging the true riches of life.

Many years ago I was told I’d never walk again. The world as I had known it came to an end – a transformation I’m blessed to have experienced, especially since today I am able to walk normally without pain. I know I am extremely fortunate having experienced this inability to give me a perspective most people never have. I strive to remember and cherish every moment I live filled with gratitude for my health.

While dancing and singing to the jazz parades during the Mardi Gras celebrations, I realized the three primary colors used as the Mardi Gras colors represent not only the colors of wealth, as in money, but the colors of wealth, as in health.

Green is for the paper money we use in the United States. Green is also the color of growth and vitality. Gold represents the gold bullion. It also is the Golden Light of healing in many cultures. Purple, the hardest color to create in ancient cultures and, henceforth, was the most expensive color making it so only royalty could afford it, brings a richness to our lives. In many religious practices it represents the qualities of spirituality.

So here I was at Disneyland, dancing and signing with my children and grandsons who are growing healthy and strong. I’m watching the Golden Light of their joy fill the air with delight while awakening to a higher level of spiritual consciousness myself.

How, you might ask, does one experience spirituality at Disneyland? Well, it is a location of “magic and make believe” is it not?

I experienced through the wonder of children of all ages. Looking into the eyes of parents and children alike, we see the dreams they hold in their hearts. Little girls and boys dressed in costumes of princesses, pirates and racer car drivers. Moms and dads watching the children they have brought here – either into this world or into the Magic Kingdom – express their inner spiritual essence.

What a rich experience this was! Remembering how at one time I thought I might not be able to walk again and here I was running and playing with my grandsons. Feeling the joy and laughter they held in their hearts when they saw Mickey Mouse or road on the Materhorn bobsled. Seeing the dreams I have held in my heart materialized before my eyes – generations of life unfolding in a Divine plan.

Money is the material we use to purchase things in our society, but the true colors of wealth are health, vitality, Light and spiritual awareness.