It was the day after my birthday, March 12, when the Coronavirus pandemic began to grow in expression, landing us here now sheltering in our homes, many of us wearing masks when we go out, losing the freedom of public gatherings, many stricken by the illness, fear running amok, fake news, and much more in the world of conditions. Has it really only been less than a month?

On the other hand, a great feeling of oneness is unfolding among many of us, and we are truly realizing that social isolation does not mean separation from each other. We have been connected through phones and the many Internet applications that allow us to communicate. We are taking more time to connect and that is good.

However, the world is not the same and there is something about it that feels like an odd sci-fi film. So how are we all feeling? Are we on the runaway train called “fear?” Our we vacillating between fear and hope, or are we part of a collective group of people who are utilizing this time to center within, assist where they can, pray, meditate and envision the future beyond this time. Of course, we all still have our feelings no matter which camp we find ourselves. For myself, although I do not experience fear, I do feel uncomfortable in the uncertainty of it all.

I am most definitely utilizing this time to go within and also because of my position as a minister and pastor, I am also in the world of assisting others and keeping the world inspired. Of course,  I can only do this if I keep myself inspired. I spend as much time as I can listening and reading those who inspire me.

As I write this, I am thinking about this time in a different way. I am treating it as life in the present right here and now and not as some transfer platform to another destination that I am traveling to. This is life on planet earth now. I am not resisting it anymore. I am, instead, deciding how I want to show up now.

Since I am living, like all of us are, in uncertainty, I am finding that the only place to show up is now. I am living in a state of holding a blank canvas and very thoughtfully and carefully deciding what I want to project onto it. Dr. Ernest Holmes, mystic and teacher and Founder of the Science of Mind wrote, “The objective is but the reflection of the subjective state of thought. Life is a blackboard upon which we consciously or unconsciously write those messages which govern us. We hold the chalk and eraser in our hands but are ignorant of this fact. What we now experience we need not continue to experience but the hand which holds the eraser must do it neutralizing work.” 

We have painted this canvas called the COVID 19. It is a reality we have collectively created. I have to accept that in order to know that I have the power to neutralize it. With the chalk or the paintbrush, we are writing our future right now. We are the ones, right now who are deciding what our world will look like when we get the signal that it is safe to go out again. We are creating that world right now. We are living that world right now in the middle of this condition. If we do not decide now what we want, more than likely we will just become part of someone else’s vision of the future. I believe we must take our power as co-creators with the Divine back now.

As I contemplate my blank canvas or empty chalkboard, I am asking myself the deep questions of what my life stands for. I am on an excavation into my beliefs along with making a decision about what beliefs serve me. I am not at all interested in the way things were. I am envisioning, without specifics, that the world is a more loving place, where we all take our position as our true selves in service to our global family. I am daily having to trust and faith in my Source of supply. I am guided and directed to show up as abundance wherever I walk. I understand the laws of giving and receiving and the law of circulation that says there is always enough of everything for everyone. I do not have to hoard anything, but I can even give a little extra, knowing there is always more.

I can only imagine that when an artist begins to draw or a composer begins to put together a piece of music that there is a moment when the hand is poised waiting for inspiration. I know that happens to me when I write. It is in that moment of poise before the creation begins to spill forth that I open up to the Divine influx and let it move through me.

I invite us all to poise gracefully and wait. If we rush forward without that inspiration, we will more than likely be coming from ego mind with a creation that comes from past experience.

No, this is all new and I am letting it be that new. I am not afraid to admit that I do not know yet what it will look like. However, what I do know and can know is that it will be founded in Spirit, and only Spirit because that is what is moving me now. We all have this capability to allow Spirit, our magnificence, our Divine creator to move through us and design a powerful and ingenious work of art called our life. As we do that we are affecting the collective in our connectedness. The shift and rebirth into higher consciousness is assured. Can’t you feel it?

In Love and Truth,

Rev. Rita