"The world is violent and mercurial. It will have its way with you. WE are saved only by love...for each other and the love that we pour into the art we feel compelled to share: being a parent, a writer, being a painter, being a friend. We live in a perpetually burning building, and what we must save from it, all the time, is love."
~ Tennessee Williams

If there is anything we could all agree on about the reality of living in these times it is that it is "unsettling." It is unsettling not to know really, how the virus spreads or which way it will go. It is unsettling to wear a mask in public and not to be able to see the countenance of a person. It is unsettling to realize how much we have neglected things: The environment, the children of the world, our individual transformation. It is unsettling not to have all the answers. It is unsettling to be homeless and to know that there are human beings who are homeless.

What is the spiritual purpose of all this unsettledness? In the Gospel reading today, (Luke 10) the disciples are sent ahead of Christ to shake people up, to cause a stir so that they can prepare themselves for the Kingdom of God in their midst. John the Baptist did the same with the announcement: "Change your heart and mind." We unsettle the earth before planting. We are unsettled inwardly before a performance, before taking a test, before giving a talk.

Perhaps the unsettling is preparation for the Spirit to be able to touch down and work in us. How impermeable we have become! These days we seem to need stronger and more catastrophic wake up calls to create openings in the heart and soul. Something new is trying to come about.

We can find alignment within ourselves, which becomes our guiding light. We cannot be divided, as the Kingdom of God is within us. So we cannot say we believe in the Divine and then freeze other human beings in false perceptions. We cannot allow ourselves to harden, or to become immoblie! We are called upon to act in the moment, with readiness and trust.

"Our part is to do what is right, moment by moment, and leave the rest for the future. To live out of pure trust, without any security in existence, trusting in the ever-present help of the spiritual world." ~ Rudolf Steiner

Rev. Carol Kelly