Yesterday the U.S. Department of Health & Human Services Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) announced updated facial covering guidelines for Americans who are fully vaccinated for COVID-19.
More than a year after the facial covering guidelines were set into place in the United States, we’ve come far enough that masks are no longer part of the guidance for the health and protection against COVID-19 for fully vaccinated people.
Each step we take is one more towards a transformed world in the post-pandemic New Earth. As I mentioned in The Gospel of Joy, Winter Solstice Edition, the key is to keep momentum in the direction of a better world for all and not backslide into suffering.
At it’s most fundamental essence though—whether you believe the world is getting better or sinking deeper into the lake of fire—we are all entering a new phase of life together as the generation to be alive on Earth during this Global Pandemic.
We can think back to what life was like in the world before the pandemic started (that is, before the very first moment you became aware of the outbreak). We certainly know what life is like during the pandemic because we are still on the pathway of transformation from the old to the new.
And, at some date in the future which nobody knows yet, we’ll be entering life in the world after the pandemic is over. Humanity will then look back on it as a historical event of the past.
This interim pathway of transformation is a blessing in disguise (as some of the best blessings are). For we still have time to shape what tomorrow’s world will be like—and it is well beyond time to choose the peaceful, healing, miraculous Way of Jesus (that is, the narrow path of Love) through forgiveness, mercy, charity, generosity, kindness, compassion, helpfulness, and all other Holiness in the Spirit of Loving-Kindness for all of life on Earth.
In other words, for Believers, it’s time to shine like Jesus in the world!
With this in mind and heart, it is a fitting time for a reminder to all that we individually and collectively have the power to create more joy in our lives and in the lives of those around us; starting in this very present moment, right now. As written in The Gospel of Joy, Winter Solstice Edition:
Instead of the feeling of being in an upside-down snow globe and shaken vigorously with no control over where each piece falls, we must not forget the power within us to create a different experience within our lives at any moment in time. For example, I can swim against the current in resistance, tread along with the flow, surf the curl of the wave, or walk on the water in balance and peace in any storm that rages in the seas. Not just keeping the faith and believing Good will prevail in the end, but also adjusting how I react and respond to what’s happening by listening to the wisdom in my heart to experience greater inner peace. Right now, life was different than it was before the pandemic. If I reflected on how my life felt now compared with my former life before it was disrupted or changed, I received knowledge in the understanding received through the wisdom of which lifetime felt better to be “me” in: What changed for the better? What changed for the worse? What did I enjoy more now than I used to enjoy less? What did I enjoy less now that I used to enjoy more? Where was my suffering? Where was my peace? Where was my joy? As I contemplated these within my heart in the present moment, it was then up to me to choose if I wanted to change everyday life for more or less of what it is that I was experiencing. This was a universal blessing based on the principles of how we organize time—from our memories (the past) compared with the time of “now” that extends into the ever-present future. Any major life-change can be used as a milestone or a guidepost to stake in the ground like at a crossroads and thereby provides the opportunity to continue going straight or turn to the right or the left. If the middle way is peace and inner stillness in balance, one way leads to the extreme of suffering and the other way leads to joy, with 360 degrees of emotions and infinite possibilities of experience in the spectrum in between.
From my path as a Joy Alchemist in the disciple lineage of Jesus, writings during the period of experimentation and observing in contemplation during my continued spiritual development after “rebirth in Spirit,” occurring back in 2012:
I was mature enough to know the difference between what suffering and joy felt like inside in the reality of my life experience of the world outside of me; and also, remained unbound from the entire range of emotions. I could clearly distinguish inner suffering, inner peace, and inner joy, and all the infinite shades in between. Thereby, I applied that inner knowledge received in wisdom back out into my outer world, reflecting on relationships with others or in time spent at work or in hobbies and past times, and instead of trying to change the outer world based on what I wanted or a belief of what was ”true,” I made changes from the inside to increase the peace and joy in my life experience—even if what I saw outside of my inner world did not look like what I wanted or expected it to be. Sure enough, when I held onto peace in my heart with joy in the vision, it ended up in a life experience filled with less suffering and more inner happiness when I persevered in faith that everything would work out for the best (and every single time it did)...
All of it begins and ends, right now, where we are standing in the present moment of time—still on the pathway of transformation.
Whether or not we shine and bring forth more of the Holy Spirit in Joy and in the name of Jesus into the world, or act more like anti-christs, is up to each person on their own. What tomorrow looks like is up to every one of us.
It’s time to, “Choose wisely,” as the Grail Knight said at the all-or-nothing, life-or-death moment of decision in the movie, Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade.
Choose wisely, indeed.
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