In recent weeks, news reporting has been very much like the first quarter of 2020. Then it was the beginning of a once in a lifetime pandemic. Remember the first maps showing the most affected areas of our country? The virus was mainly in the North and the Southern states were almost free and clear of it. Now the maps are just the opposite. Current reporting tells us the Delta variant is moving from the South to the North.

In the beginning there was no vaccine available. Our levels for protection was stay home, wash your hands, don’t touch your face, mask up or take your chances. With so many mixed messages in our country, it became easier to listen and keep a watchful eye on what other countries were doing. The information was great but, even with how careful I was, I still became a statistic in the pandemic.

Once you or a loved one experienced it firsthand, you know the reality of it all. With no desire to do that again, why did I hesitate to receive the vaccine? Simple, like others, I felt there was too much controversy. The virus was slowing down in the North so we were good.

This spring, circumstances changed when someone I knew became very ill with Covid-19. That hospitalization told me there was a choice to be made; yes I will be vaccinated or no thank you, I’ll take my chances. Not out of fear, but out of my belief in humanity, my consciousness lined up with doing what was right for me. A couple hours after my vaccine the foggy thinking this statistic had been left with was gone; a surprise bonus!

If you stop into church or see me in public, most likely you will still see me wearing a mask. Vaccinated and masked up because I see many different people in a week. It is not in my consciousness to carry anything to the senior citizens I spend time with. On a recent stop into a small store, I heard a woman say, excuse me, woman in pink! As I turned her eyes caught mine. She thanked me for wearing a mask because she thinks it is important. She asked me very loudly how I could stand being in the store with people who were not wearing a mask?

Awkward, but God has a way of creating the right and perfect place for the lessons we need to learn in life. Whose lesson? It may have been my lesson to speak up and share my story. It may have been a lesson for the loud woman asking the question of what she had put into her own thinking.

If you ever had the pleasure to hear a spiritual lesson from a speaker familiar with anonymous groups, you know the only person you can change is you. People tend to want to be free to live their lives and still tell others how to live theirs. That is not spiritual living but it is a way for you to become discontented in life.

The store moment was a spiritual lesson; a God happening. The moment felt awkward as the store went silent. In that moment I had nothing to say but these words came out, “I just let people be who they are and I accept them that way.” So let’s all breathe that thought in for a few minutes. ALL people in the world are a spirit having a physical experience. In this physical world, there is no right or wrong. It’s all just a bunch of lessons for us to learn about life.

In spiritual teachings we learn to put God first and live our life in a shared relationship with God as a power greater than ourselves. We know what we think, say and do, has a direct effect on our life and the world. We are all from one mind, God mind. In that little store, at that moment, all of the shoppers and workers were silently at one with God mind.

As you look at your life and contemplate a vaccine or no vaccine, know that you and your decision are blessed by the mind that rules all energy. And those who do not choose the same as you are also of that same God mind. Free yourself by not asking others to be who you want them to be. Allow their soul its lesson.

Jesus came to show us the way, to live the example of God in life. It is our job to follow His example. It’s really not difficult but sometimes we do have to step out of ego and remind ourselves that our beliefs are not the only way.

Throughout our lifetime we have built structures in our own consciousness of our choices. Those structures are from this physical world. God encourages us not to conform to this physical world, but be transformed by renewing our mind.

Choose to say no thank you to the old structures you have built into your thinking mind. Spiritually speaking, there is only One mind, God mind, the field of consciousness in which we want to dwell. Be of that One Mind, which does have right ideas. Spend time in the silence to hear those right ideals so your mind can be clear and open to another’s soul lesson and expression.

Many blessings on your daily choices,

Linda La Croix

Linda La Croix is Prayer Chaplain & Unity Director at Unity of Lake Orion.

Look for La Croix’s column, A Spiritual Walk, regularly in The Lake Orion Review, and”Like” her Facebook page, A Spiritual Walk, to find more positive thoughts.