The great challenge of our world situation today is ultimately an issue of consciousness. The situation will not be solved by any given political party, nation, or religion, because the problem is us: in our making decisions every day from fear, rather than love. Until we all both individually and collectively “grow up,” face our fears, and become living conduits of the love and unity that is native to our being, we will suffer.

The changes in the physical Earth situation are very important. But they are not primary. Consciousness is first; the physical is subsequent. Consciousness must change first; and then as it changes, we will naturally change the Earth situation.

Every time any one of us faces and integrates fear, we are making real progress. Every time any one of us chooses to selflessly support the person near us, even when it is difficult, we are making real progress. Every time any one of us finds joy and freedom even when the constraints of physical life are extreme, we are making real progress. Every time in the quiet of your own heart that you choose love over fear, that you choose freedom rather than the restrictive conditioning of your past, that you listen to the deeper parts of yourself even when the local story’s terrors seem so convincing, we are making real progress! Many times, real progress is made, even when a physical finger has not yet lifted.

You are important! Your journey, your choices, your intent is important. Your well being is important. That is true regarding you personally– not just you generally. You are very important indeed! And you are powerful. What you choose to do with that power as you engage this experience of the physical has a far-reaching effect. That effect may not be perceivable with the physical senses, but it does not make it any less real. You are affecting our reality, and other realities, in profound ways every day. How you choose to meet your daily experience- indeed, how you choose to meet each precious moment- is important!

So be encouraged! You have power over everything that you need to in order to effect real, lasting change for the better. Because you– your consciousness and spirit- are a part of this great unfolding. And as you change, so does the world!

We must take action. Spirituality without physical action is not true spirituality- because spirituality is about our real relationship with the present moment and the intent we wield in that present moment. Intention without action is not true intention. Intent equals action. When you intend to lift your hand, your hand lifts. When you intend to care for the other, you physically care for the other.

It is all too easy for the ego to justify inaction as the right thing to do. True loving intent questions even that, and sacrifices one’s comfort and certainty in the name of the whole whenever necessary.

We must take personal responsibility for our place in the world! In fact, we must take personal responsibility for the whole world!

Simultaneously, we do not need to be overwhelmed with the scope of the change required. We simply need to act where we are. As the saying goes, you must be the change that you wish to see in the world.

But this does not mean that you need to lose your peace. Your true nature transcends the rigorous “external” context. Your true nature is far greater than the ample opportunity around you to actualize that nature into our world. You are peace, and love, and freedom, and joy! And as you know that, you are able to then bring that to those around you in important physical and tangible ways. As you actualize both that physical change and also that change in your own consciousness, you help fulfill your extremely important role in the great expansion of being that is happening through this place.

Life itself is abundant beyond measure! Life itself is so rich that no physical form can possibly express the depths of its native bounty. You are Life, having the experience of being a person.

Thus the depths of abundance exist within you! You do not need to turn to the things of the world to find your richness. You do not need to turn to objects, ideas, beliefs, actions, substances, sensations, or relationships to find your worth. Worth already belongs to you, because you Are. That is not a statement of ego, it is a statement about Being.

There is never truly a reason to give up your hope, joy, or peace: Life is always there with you, because Life is what you are. The incredible depths of the bounty of that truth can never, ever leave you. Listen to the richness of your Being beneath all the Earthly conditioning, and allow yourself to know this while you are human, that your physical experience can that much more be one of joy!

Fear arises when we think we are lacking something which is actually intrinsic to our being, like power, or freedom, or love. Fear encourages us to think further that we are so lacking: in fear we tend to travel down the rabbit hole of further believing we are lacking power, or freedom, or love. But the underlying truth of our being is that we lack nothing. In that sense, fear is a lie. Fear is a lie because separation itself- and the apparent lack of freedom, power, or love that we may experience with it- is ultimately an illusion! The experience of separation is a real experience, but it is also not fundamental: it is transcended by something far more enduring.

We know that we are “buying into” the illusion of separation when we are suffering. When we act from fear or selfishness, ultimately, we suffer. And when we act from fear, others often end up suffering too. Our ego may play all sorts of games to try to justify and protect us, but we can’t fool reality- when we are acting from fear or selfishness, painful experiences naturally result.

This process is not an act of punishment by Source. This process is the natural result of choosing non-native separation over native unity and love. Love doesn’t even require love in return; yet where we choose not love, we do suffer. It is our choice.

Fear can be very convincing. But you always, always have the power to choose how you will meet it. Do not be daunted by the scope, or by the circumstances. Rather, simply choose: how will you meet this moment? Allow your heart and soul to guide you! The circumstances are not of primary importance- what is important is you: your simple but powerful intention; your state of being. Be willing, and open, and vulnerable, and genuine, and brave. Do so even when it is difficult- especially when it is difficult.

And as you do so, allow yourself to remember: whatever perception you are buying into that is giving rise to the fear is not greater than the truth. The deepest truth is never, ever one of fear. Fear is ultimately false- and the power of Love and Life within you is true.

A challenge is a gift! When the individual is challenged by circumstance, the opportunity for the spirit to apply itself and expand through that experience is a gift. It is not that hardship itself is good- but rather, it is a neutral catalyst that can be useful.

The ego may reject this. The ego may see hardship as simply terrible and negative. But nothing terrible and negative arises that the spirit cannot ultimately use. There is nothing greater than All That Is- nothing can arise within it that is not of meaning. Even hardship- and often especially hardship- ultimately has great value in the churning processes of manifest creation, which ultimately serve the expansion of everlasting joy!

To the immortal and all powerful spirit, challenge is a precious opportunity to bring virtue to bear- to expand and actualize the depths of one’s own love and light in a real, lasting way. We are spirit first, and human second. The challenges of the secondary human experience are often worth the temporary price to the bold spirit who knows the truth of immortality and wishes to expand itself and the joy of All, forever.

In what ways is the world pushing you, painfully, to let go of your fear and ego? In what ways is the world compelling you to embrace your joy, live your truth, and share your love? What is the hardship of your life teaching you? What is the pain of your story saying? If you listen deeply, beneath all the labels, your deeper spirit is always there ready to help you utilize this current circumstance for lasting purposes that may far exceed what your human mind can imagine.

Consciousness sojourns from the unlimited and formless, into form, and back again.

After great journeys into the worlds of form, we often long to return Home. We yearn to re-connect (though, that connection can never be truly lost) with the total limitlessness, wonder, love, and freedom of Source!

Then, as the unlimited, we may choose to follow our interest in expanding joy, creativity, and love by once again “being something” and having certain experiences. Our journey into discreet perspective is ultimately additive, even when- and often especially when- a given journey is temporarily challenging.

All That Is thrives and expands through the processes of Creation! All That Is rejoices in the capacity to experience things, to be things, to ever be more, to ever add to What Is Possible. You and I are that, too! You and I, including you and I as human personalities, are precious and deeply adored participants in this process.

There is not an “end point.” The system of Creation is an ever-expanding movement towards greater joy and love! That is ultimately not an arduous process, but a joyful one!

The veil holds you fast so that you must face that which you otherwise would’ve simply escaped. You knew ahead of time that being “held to” the human experience had great value, so you agreed to that commitment.

Honor your willingness to sign up for the constraints of the world by surrendering to them and allowing them to work with you in the way they were intended.

The world is not your enemy. The world is an “in your face” rigorous context that provides an opportunity for you. That is true even when, and especially when, you don’t want that context. Even if you do not remember it, you agreed to be bound in this way, because you knew beforehand that this type of apparently inescapable context would provide incredible experiential opportunity for the growth of what you are, and what everything is. Now that you are here, you have the valuable opportunity to consciously intend to use that opportunity!

Each of us are called by Love to meet our given present moment in any number of a myriad of ways, so there is just not one action or response that such an intent might potentially mean. That being said, here are three general suggestions for consideration.

First, we can choose to say “Yes” to any given experience. We can choose to not resist. We can follow where the circumstances lead, rather than fight them. We can allow ourselves to fully experience everything, including pain. We can surrender to what is happening rather than fight it. We can give up our small picture control, which isn’t real power anyway.

Second, we can let life be our teacher. That is, we can intend to cooperate with the feedback of our own life experience- to listen to and take full personal ownership of both the pain and the joy of our lives. We can choose to be willing to be wrong, or weak, or powerless. We can choose to swallow our pride, and accept our failings. We can let joy lead us where it wants to! We can let ourselves “grow up!” The actual nature of our own life experience is a teacher of great fidelity- we can choose to actually cooperate with the process of learning the lessons that our life is working to teach us by listening to the feedback and taking ownership for our own life experience exactly as it is.

Third, we can study how our own meaning and interpretations, and our own story, are affecting both ourselves and others. We are assigning the meaning to the physical content in our lives. We can choose to pay close attention to how that meaning is playing out. In other words, we can take ownership for our own beliefs about ourselves and our world, and we can take ownership for the effects we are having on others because of those beliefs. We are far more powerful than we generally understand- our power for interpretation is great, and far less limited than we might believe. And part of the way we can honor the physical experience is by having the courage to actually acknowledge that experience for exactly what it is, just as it exists, before any interpretation is applied- and then taking ownership for all our own many interpretations that we have subsequently placed upon it, and the effects of those interpretations.

Being physical is not always easy. But it is purposeful. When we choose to honor the physical experience by working with it, we allow it to fulfill that purpose. And that is a wonderful thing! Because despite all the apparent trauma and destruction, our universe is born from purposes of deep joy and love! And so when we work with it, we actually facilitate both our own joy, and the fulfillment of great “love plans” that are beyond our personal comprehension.

Paradox happens when perspective is incomplete. Paradox only happens from the limited human perspective within form. In truth there is no paradox, and there can be no paradox. All things occur in accordance with the purposeful and fully coherent movement of Life.

The “laws” of God, including the laws that govern the operation of realities, work perfectly and inexorably. There is never a moment that is not governed by their perfect execution, even within many levels of complexity, and even within many different reality systems. When viewed from a “local” vantage point however, it can appear to the philosophical form-based and duality-conditioned mind that two forms contradict. This is only an error of belief in form as fundamental, when in fact the experience of apparently discreet form is birthed by “something greater.”

Beneath the thinking mind, the deeper parts of you are always connected to that “something greater.” When you are willing to let go of the local human content, and truly look within the depths of your consciousness itself, the intellectual contradictions have a chance to fall away into the vastness of Being- the same Being within which they seem to arise.

No matter a given experience of physicality, ultimately all consciousness returns to joy. Joy is the spirit’s true nature, its fabric, its native state. Your destiny is joy beyond physical imagining! That is where you are inevitably headed, no matter how the forms of reality may have bunched up around you at the moment. Those forms are made of the same fabric, even if they do not appear to be.

The present moment itself is beautiful and gentle. It is willing to touch you when you are willing to let go of your stories about it.

The ability to experience strong sensory data (for example pain), or the ability to experience the interpretations that you have put upon your circumstances, does not reduce the fidelity of the native joy that gives rise to such experiences. The experiences of form- including sensory experiences or given interpretations of the mind- will pass. But the truth of being cannot. Since that truth of being is untold joy, peace, freedom, and love, you cannot help but return to that joy, peace, freedom, and love as the forms that you are associating with pass.

Your destination is joy! So while you are on your walk in the world of form, take heart, and allow your native joy to rise up and shine through you! For your true Being is ever present, even when the forms may seem on the surface to be opaque or insurmountable!

The only way for spirit to know what it is like to be a human is to be a human. The only way for the spirit to experientially learn how to successfully express its true nature in a world of flesh, is to be flesh.

You cannot truly learn how to do something by watching someone else do it- you must do it yourself. You cannot truly know what it is like to be something unless you are that thing.

This is why the human experience is so real. Spirit chooses to do its best to “actually become” that which it wishes to truly experience. The veil serves that purpose.

If you do not remember your higher nature while you are human, that is OK- and not only OK, it is wonderful! It means you have successfully arrived at an experience of being whoever and whatever you think you are right now. That experience is a gift!

Simultaneously, if you wish to, it is also your birthright to wake up to who you really are. You have committed to your walk in the physical beneath the veil, and the veil is effective, but that doesn’t mean you aren’t still far more than your physical life, too. Indeed, even right now, what you really are vastly exceeds the confines of your human experience! So while you have come to experience all that being human entails, you are not required to lose your identity completely within the forms of human life. No matter the nature of the forms you are currently associating with, you are actually far, far more than that which you have chosen to be in this life on Earth! Your true identity remains.

In the meantime, while the human experience remains thick and firm, honor yourself for your choice- even a choice that you may not remember! For to know what it is like to be human, you had to actually be human- and that is a most celebrated and awe-inspiring choice indeed!