Tides of Change

Change is an inevitable fact of life and always brings with it a revised normal. Sometimes it slides in, unobserved, and other times it hits us like a bolt of lightning. Then, there is a combo effect that happens in real time, but in slow motion, like a tsunami as we watch in disbelief as the coming wave forms in the distance and we stubbornly cling to denial, hoping that what we are witnessing is not going to wash over us. 

My new normal, for the past year, is to go out into the fray only once a week. Some of this is the natural loss of stamina from age but mostly it's about hating to have to go along to get along. I make a list and plan my mission with the precision of an explorer heading into uncharted territory.

On a recent acquisition list was a couple items from Hobby Lobby so that was my first stop. Here in Georgia there was never a government mandated mask policy but left up to individual businesses. Which, of course, being mostly corporate franchises, all require masks so I have had a mask in my purse for over a year now. It's looking a bit ragged and not especially hygienic. For me it is symbolic of performance art anyway. For several months I have noticed folks walking around with their noses exposed. If I am on an aisle by myself, I pull mine down completely. I like/need oxygen more than being a performer in political theater. 

It seems as though this is going away, however, as the mandate now shifts from mask to vaccine, I recognize this big illusion/lie that we are now forced to live under as the guise of 'safety' and 'caring about others'. It is the ultimate, though super subtle, replacement of following the true God with the god of Self-Righteousness. We don't have to trust the real God anymore if we pledge our allegiance to the god of all things safe. Life imitating art - feeling more like the Matrix everyday. 

Even scarier, though, is that it also resembles what I see as slow slide conditioning for the next step.  

Full disclosure, though I could declare protection by the HIPAA Laws, I don't need the vaccine because I had Covid and have the most real, science-based, best possible, natural immunity now, the kind vaccines are supposed to mimic.  So I will not lie and say I had the vaccine to go with the flow.

Does it not seem odd that this time last year the focus was on how many had Covid and the resulting antibodies but now these numbers are not included in the proposed passport? The medical gurus were asking that Covid survivors donate their antibody laden blood to be used to save others. Interesting that those who are vaccinated now cannot donate blood though. For the record, I will say no to the passport even if it means I can no longer buy or sell without it, a possibility in the works by those who claim to care so much for our well being. 

Reminder: No one knows the hour or the day but the Father but it's not like we weren't warned to pay attention to the signs. 

On my recent out-and-about day, I allowed myself to wander a bit in Hobby Lobby. I marveled at all the merchandise available, home decor, hobby and craft materials that felt like echos of another time, back when we myopically took old normal for granted. I paused at a display of 4th of July decorations. It was like looking at memorabilia of a deceased loved one - representing remnants of memories instead of symbols of a reason to celebrate the home of the brave and land of the free. 

Suddenly I found myself fighting back a rising grief that we are watching, as it unfolds, at what was once a God blessed country, now slipping over the edge to irreversible destruction. And, somehow, it seems as though things have speeded up too. Which is also a sign, btw. I can't help but visualize hoards of demons having been held back, now unleashed to overcome basic common sense. 

Nothing makes any sense anymore.

Everything is surreal and dystopian. It's a bad dream I can't seem to wake up from. In spite of all the history of this country as we have endured and recovered from countless trials and challenges for 245 years, I do not see the current situation returning to the way it was. It occurred to me that maybe the way it was might have been just illusion as well - a hologram hiding a very dark reality that is now revealing itself.  

Whether we are rescued this time or not, it seems a new, not so good, normal gathers on the horizon like a never seen before wave of destruction. 

However, that said, I am pragmatic and intuitive, which has to do with my INTJ personality type, though I find it difficult to even hope that we are going to ever be as we were pre-Covid. Yet I refuse to get dysfunctional over it. What good would that do? Time to stop being in denial, though. The only hope I see depends on ramped up faith. If God be for us, who can be against us? While that does sound comforting the part unspoken is that we have to step up and declare, out loud, that we are for Him. We take the 1 step to Him, He takes the 999 to us. 

Warning: there is no gray area or safe ground on the edge of the abyss. It's stand, or fall over. You can't change your mind on the way down.

I am,

For Him,

Meema