Re-Examining 2020 In The View of COVID-19

In the start of this year 2020, while others were out reveling in the "Roaring Twenties" themed parties, I spent my night walking through the streets slowly, pondering the year passing away and thinking of what was to come.  Earlier in the day, I walked the labyrinth at the Methodist Church as I always do on NYE, releasing into the confines of time all of what 2019 was and looking forward with set intentions of what was to come.  The rest of the night was spent in similar fashion, and although I stopped by and visited a few gatherings (mostly Awake Cafe & Gallery), I was retired to my pad (where I was house-sitting) at around 10 pm. 

The message of the night given to me overwhelming was that of 'Vision', a play on the year then approaching and perfect eye-sight.  I mean no dis-respect in those ringing in the New Year with hopes of the roaring twenties, but I have never truly been a big party type girl. 

However, I think that intention has grounded me these last three months and even more so in these last two weeks as we now find ourselves in the season of quarantine.  It is quite interesting to note that in January I visited the eye doctor who showed me how to align my vision with the help of 'reader' glasses, with only one lens, the end result not just correcting my depth perception and physical balance, but emotional, mental, and spiritual as well.  With that simple act, so much overall growth of well-being has transpired.

That said, this year has already given me a sense of feeling grounded and with a clearer focus, which has shaped how I viewed the effects of COVID-19 on the world, my personal life, and that of my closest friends and family.  

I do not view this pandemic truly as the 'end of the world apocalypse, in a general sense, though I do view it as the end of an era.  As I joked with friends this week, the effect of human kind 'staying in' has had a positive influence on the environment which made me comment, "Its like Mother Earth had had an enough.  'I gave you a chance to change,' she said.  'But you did not.  This is a consequence, go to your room, you are grounded.'  

All joking aside, (but yes, humor is important in our spiritual growth and advancement), the truth of the matter is, we as a human race needed this.  And, not just humanity but all of life.  We had all, and I am just as guilty, gotten to caught up with the business of busyness to truly understand the purpose of living.  

COVID-19 is an external reality of a long inward truth, we, collectively and individually, have been ill for quite awhile.  We have tried many ways to appease, silence, and get over this sickness, but to no avail.  This blight would not be cured until its time, forcing us back into quite possibly the scariest place on earth, our insides.  

The humorous meme being passed around on social media is that reminding those who partied at the 'Roaring Twenties' shindigs on NYE that we got our "roaring twenties': the plague, the market crashing, the lack of alcohol.  But this isn't the 1920's, this is 2020, the year of vision and clarity, healing and wholeness. 

Yes, I believe a new era is dawning, a truth we can all admit regardless of our spiritual practices or lack there of.  But, in the birth of something new, we have to release unto death that which no longer serves us.  In a very real sense, we are 'being saved as if by fire' as we all plunge deeper into the depths of our own selves.  This 'sickness is not unto death' speaks Jesus (and I do not mean to make light of the physical deaths of those already lost due to COVID-19) but more to speak of the spiritual healing transforming and rising us up to a higher vibration.  

For in order for the world to be healed, for there to be peace across all the lands, it must first begin with each of us individually.  We must all go inward, reduce all the distractions of the busyness of life, and dig deep into our own healing.  We must cleanse, release, forgive, and ascend to the true enlightened selves we were born to be, and only then, will this world be the beautiful haven it is mean to be.  

Only then, will Mother Earth release us from our sequestered lives, allowing us to emerge from our cocoons of darkness and feel finally the true light of peace and love upon us, basking finally in the warmth of a healed and healthy humanity and world.  

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jVmB3lRjCmc

Team by team reporters baffled, trump, tethered crop.
Look at that low plane! Fine, then.
Uh oh, overflow, population, Common Food,
But it'll do. Save yourself, serve yourself.
World serves its own needs, listen to your heart bleed.
Tell me with the rapture and the reverent in the right, right.
You vitriolic, patriotic, slam, fight, bright light;
Feeling pretty psyched.

It's the end of the world as we know it.
It's the end of the world as we know it.
It's the end of the world as we know it, and I feel fine.

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Coronavirus Thoughts

Coronavirus Thoughts

Written by

Jacqueline Pollock 

(All views expressed in article are that of the author.)

For many weeks I’ve been hearing about nothing more than Coronavirus and like a lot of people have been contemplating things such as life, employment, and everything but one, love as I know where I stand with the one I’m in a relationship with, let me tell you that’s pretty stable. Today as I sit in my home office, on YouTube I’m listening to the Imagination Theater Channel’s newest post which is a new episode of the Adventures of Harry Nile, I start contemplating again. I’m thirty-nine (39) years old and I’ve been a Certified Nursing Assistant (CNA) off and on for fifteen (15) years. I’ve seen SARS, H1N1 (AKA Swine Flu), Ebola, Zika Virus, and more.

The Trump Administration has tried to blow things WAY out of proportion and has succeeded at this. The sitting President of the United States of America, the so-called HONORABLE Donald John Trump, Sr., has not listened to the medical and scientific communities, has appointed his Vice President, another So-Called HONORABLE Michael Pence, who is neither a scientist or a Medical Doctor, to a committee to study & fight the Cornoavirus. This is also the POTUS that appointed Benjamin Carson to be the head of Housing and Urban Development (HUD) instead of the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) and forgot that Secretary Carson IS an actual Medical Doctor, who was in practice as a Neurosurgeon. I propose that DOCTOR Benjamin Carson, M.D. would’ve been a better head of a task force/committee on Coronavirus? Is President Trump an idiot? No he’s a complete dumba** (I’m trying to keep it PG-13, instead of Rated R). 

The trend right now is to buy stores out of Toilet Paper, Hand Sanitizer, and all kinds of other hygienic items for everyone and just like hygiene products for menstruation individuals are taxed; what in the hell are the state governments thinking taxing hygiene products instead of ensuring that hygienic products are sold tax free? 

According to a Wikipedia article “Five states do not have a state sales tax (Alaska, Delaware, Montana, New Hampshire, and Oregon), and as of June 2019, thirteen US states specifically exempted essential hygiene products: Utah,Ohio, California, Connecticut, Florida, Illinois, Maryland, Massachusetts, Minnesota, New Jersey, New York, Nevada, Pennsylvania, and Rhode Island. California repealed the tax in its 2019 state budget, but only for the two-year duration of the budget.”  Also according to a New York Times article “Rhode Island repealed the tax in its budget bill. Representative Edith H. Ajello and Senator Louis P. DiPalma, both Democrats, had submitted separate legislation to do so earlier in the year, as they had every year since 2016. The measure, which would cost around $800,000 a year, was effectively approved through the budget, Ms. Ajello said. “I never heard anybody say it was a bad idea to get rid of the tax,” Ms. Ajello said. “I just heard some people wonder whether we could afford it.” In California, Gov. Gavin Newsom, a Democrat, held a news conference in May surrounded by giant boxes of diapers and tampons, and announced a plan to eliminate the tax on both in the state budget. It was a stark contrast to the approach of his predecessor, Jerry Brown, also a Democrat, who had vetoed a bill to eliminate taxes on those items, arguing that “tax breaks are the same as new spending.” But Mr. Newsom’s exemption will last only two years, in contrast to a law, which would be in place permanently. “We hope to extend it, but we hope to be in a fiscal position to do so and we want to maintain our prudence,” Mr. Newsom said, according to The Los Angeles Times. The L.A. Times noted that the cost of eliminating the taxes on both period products and diapers was estimated at $76 million per year. In Maine, the House and Senate passed a bill sponsored by Representative Denise Tepler, a Democrat, to repeal the tax. But lawmakers did not designate money to cover its cost, which was estimated at $817,000 in the next full fiscal year, so it did not advance. It could still be funded next year, at which point it would move to the governor’s desk, Ms. Tepler said. Ms. Tepler said that she agreed that aspects of the tax code didn’t make sense — for example, she asked, why are diapers taxed when fancy cuts of meat aren’t? She called for a deeper rethinking of sales tax policy. In Georgia, lawmakers shelved a proposal to nix the 4 percent tax, but allocated funds to provide free menstrual products in schools and community centers in low-income areas. In Virginia, lawmakers reduced the tax on menstrual products and diapers to 2.5 percent, rather than nixing it entirely. It had been as high as 7 percent in some parts of the state. Michigan was one of many states where anti-tampon tax proposals failed to gain traction. Senator Winnie Brinks, a Democrat who co-sponsored two such bills, said she was moved to act after years of paying for menstrual products for herself and her three daughters. She said that she couldn’t think of any other tax that was levied on only one sex. In Louisiana, Senator J.P. Morrell, a Democrat, sponsored a bill to eliminate taxes on diapers and menstrual products. In negotiations, lawmakers sought to combine the measure with tax breaks on firearms and other items, he said. Opponents voiced concern about the cost, and prevailed. The other states where bills were introduced but did not advance were Arizona, Hawaii, Indiana, Iowa, Kentucky, Missouri, Nebraska, New Mexico, Ohio, Tennessee, Texas, Utah, Vermont, Washington and West Virginia, according to a database compiled by Period Equity.”  Are we giving in to those who are assisting in growing the panic and panic too? 

Some people are and personally I’m just sitting not on the sidelines, not in the stands, actually I’m sitting in my office thinking that we survived SARS, we survived H1N1 (AKA Swine Flu), we survived Ebola, we survived Zika Virus, and we’ve survived even more, we’ll survive this. 

One of the elder gentleman I know (let me call him W.H.) and I personally feel that I have the great pleasure of knowing W.H. as he’s one of those “shoot from the hip tell it like it is kind of people.” Anyhow W.H. recently said it best: “If I get the da** thing I get it; if I don't get it I don't get it; really we can't stop it from happening if it's going to end up happening anyway.” So when it comes to virus scares let just be Careful folks and remember: Wash your hands not only is it hygenic, it’s supposed to be common sense.

1 Source: Tampon Tax

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tampon_tax#:~:text=Five%20states%20do%20not%20have,year%20duration%20of%20the%20budget

2 Source: 22 States Considered Eliminating the 'tampon Tax' This Year. Here's What Happened.

Karen Zraick - https://www.nytimes.com/2019/07/12/us/tampon-tax.html

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Hope For Humanity

We are now in the thick of the election season and as per the usual in recent times, the fear arises.  Will my candidate win or will he lose? Will the already corrupt government system remain or will we finally prevail as "We the People?"  And I, for one, am not immune to this fear.  This concern not just for the welfare of my life, but for the future of my country for those I love and particularly my nieces, nephew, and children in my life, as well as for our Mother Earth.  

But, in days frequent, I have stepped back from the media hype that invades my electronic devices with propaganda trying to make me believe it is news, and instead seek to center myself and re-focus.  In addition, I have been reading the book, "Radical Forgiveness: Making Room For The Miracle" by Colin C. Tipping and its given me pause to reflect upon the reason behind the current political and, dare I say, spiritual upheaval in the country and my world.

This text, and my growing belief, states that the emotional turmoil that is we believe is caused by what we see is external but in fact is actually a lesson to help us grow and heal from the wounds we carry.  These wounds are most likely those we try to hide or, at least, try not to look at too closely, but try as we might to run, our pain will catch us up and overwhelm.  And, overwhelm they will, no matter how hard we try to push down.  So, what is seemingly an external irritant is in fact a beloved teacher meant to heal and transform. 

Here's the thing.  We as individuals, a country, a world, cannot run from ourselves.  We will continually be confronted with our own pain, our own issues, brought to us in the lesson of different individuals and circumstances until we surrender to the divine, listen, learn, heal, and release.  I believe wholeheartedly that not only do we need to do this on an individual level but more and more that this is the reasoning behind current national upheaval as well as the world pains and issues.

So, what then do we do?  Yes, I do what I can for my country, my world.  I vote, I stay aware, I recycle, I give...but it all starts for me from the place of self care, personal growth, and self awareness.  Without that centering, I can become off-kilter and quickly fly into the place not just of anger but scape-goating, victimhood, and blame of which will never bring healing and resolution.

Our one recourse for a better nation and world starts with us personally.  There is a deeper reason behind Senator Sanders, "Not Me, Us" slogan and it has nothing to do with politics, but the spiritual, emotional, psychology.   Visualization for a victory of a better world is important but coming from a place free of fear and anger begins with our own healing.  We will continue to be confronted with our own demons in the guise of people and circumstances both on a individual, local, national, and global level until we can learn to surrender, listen, learn, and heal from the lesson given.  It is only then that true evolution and victory will arise.

Here comes the sun, here comes the sun

And I say it's all right

Little darling, it's been a long cold lonely winter

Little darling, it feels like years since it's been here

Here comes the sun, here comes the sun

And I say it's all right

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mc1ta1UMGeo

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