Finding where you belong is not an aspect of life many people consider, but, now, it is one of the most important choices you will ever be asked to make.

Boundaries go unnoticed too often, but they have become more important than ever in these recent pandemic months. New imposed boundaries have affected everything. They have impacted what we wear, where we go, what we do and how we are personally, nationally and globally, and the manner of our reaction to the changing boundaries says much about us as human beings and as souls.

Boundaries have been significant always as a means of indicating how far we have achieved our learnings about being human. They relate to timidity, fear, freedom, risk taking, responsibility, relationships and equilibrium. Some people have no boundaries, often thereby causing hurt to others through thoughtless speech or selfish action, or hurt to themselves by never saying “no”. Other people’s boundaries are so tightly drawn they drive others away and their lives are sad and narrow – extremes of introversion and extroversion personified.

Often we never think about our boundaries as we get on with living life as best we can, but they are important in defining us and providing a framework for how we live those lives. Children who grow up in homes where there are no structures and therefore no rhythm or routine can feel lost and insecure as they are tossed about on a sea of uncertainty, while an excess of discipline and tight control can be just as damaging but in a different way.

The boundaries we set, or not, in relationships or lifestyle create our foundations and affect life and soul. We even have boundaries, or not, about whether we eat indiscriminately and excessively, or say “no” to sugar, for example: our attitude to food determines our first spiritual initiation which is about physical self-control, and so our approach to food and drink and connected boundaries matters.

Because of their importance, it is interesting to reflect on how we each have reacted to the new boundaries suggested or imposed by the Coronavirus. Some of us welcomed the opportunity to raise the drawbridge of our personal castle and to shelter from a busy world behind it; others railed against the restrictions and refused to comply at whatever cost to others; some extended their attitudinal boundaries in order to help others at a challenging time while others, motivated by self-interest, tightened them.

New boundaries will be required of us in weeks and months to come as a result of a continuing viral contamination and economic pressures that will make us lower our drawbridge to confront a new reality of recession and inflation, even as further restrictions to our old freedom of action are required. Some of us will comply with everything asked of us, some will refuse to co-operate altogether and others still will choose how far, if and where to change our boundaries.

Until the pandemic broke there was a loose national cohesion based on cultural norms and tradition: that cohesion is being stretched to the point of dissolution which could lead to more of the social unrest we are beginning to see now, challenging the status quo and causing us to rethink who we are as a society and what do we want or need to be, as well as testing each of us personally at every level.

We walk on shifting sands, but we have strong earth beneath the sands, the mysteries of the Cosmos above us and seas stretching into infinity before us, all aspects of the divine and reassurance that Spirit is with us on this great journey. Whatever else you do, stretch your boundaries as much as possible to enable you to feel and see the wonder of being alive today, protected and loved so much. Use your boundaries well.

At the time of last week’s solstice the tectonic plates of the lower dimensions shifted, exposing and enabling great shafts of energy from the planes beyond to stir our human world into self-revelation and a final choosing. The energies released were, distinctly, dark and light, and it was as if millions of black and white balloons had been released for each of us to choose one in the colour of our choice.

This great year of great events sees its second high point at the time around the June Solstice, and you can feel, as you watch your world, the inexorable erosion of the foundations of human society that is part of this. When foundations crumble, light and space emerge.

I invite you to remember how it was and how you were when Earth was young, and so were you.

This year of 2020 will be remembered for the unexpected: just as we feel we know what is happening and are adjusting to a new reality, another shock occurs to challenge our complacency and cause us to reflect again on our attitudes and approach to life as we are thrown further into a seething cauldron of uncertainty.

Every occurrence in 2020 has an added significance because it is in 2020, the year of revolution, and each new moon, each full moon, every spiritual festival is sharpened in energy and especially meaningful.  Please remember this as you prepare for Wesak and the gift of Buddha’s return.

In my home there are three large, visible clocks.  One is radio-controlled, one is battery operated and the third is a Victorian mantel clock, and none of them work, while all of them should.

It is no coincidence that our world is consumed by an all-pervasive virus at a time of great spiritual significance for people of many faiths including Christians, Jews, Buddhists, Jains, Hindus, Muslims, Baha’is and Sikhs.  Each year April is filled with solemn remembering and celebration, and this year the month is made poignant, unforgettable, by, for many, a sense of separation and a grief for the loss of certainty as well as the loss of life. 

The global situation we are in is testing and may seem baffling in its uncertainty.  No-one knows what will happen next, or indeed what to do.