From our earliest days we're all part of numerous reference groups : our family, our classmates, our school, our team, our neighborhood. As we grow up we affiliate on the basis of our interests and values and careers. The reference groups we identify with can bring pleasure, but they can also amplify our differences and create separation from, and judgment of, others who are not in our reference group. Whether we identify as Americans or global citizens, liberals or conservatives, vaxers or anti-vaxers, or any number of other social, political, national, racial or religious groups, our alliances and identifications can set up a condition where we're dividing the world into "us" and "them." We treat "us" differently than we treat "them." Generally there is acceptance of group members with whom we share values, while there can be a lack of tolerance toward those who are not "us" and are seen as "them." Only when our reference group includes all of humanity is there no separation into "us" and "them." Only then are we all part of one large reference group, the human kingdom, where there is no "them." But how do we reach and sustain a consciousness where we are all one? Where is the doorway to this consciousness?
One doorway is inside, it opens into the depth of our spirit, our soul. When we resonate with a deeper place in ourselves we also resonate with a deeper place inside others, a place beyond external affiliations, appearances, jobs, social position etc. When we identify with our own soul we look deeper into others as well. We see beyond their externals. When we shift our focus and go through this doorway we join a community of Souls, a spiritual community, where we recognize members by their attention to their inner life, through their writing or the look in their eyes or how they speak about the soul. Our spiritual community members may not even be living on Earth now, but we still know them as part of our spiritual community. For me, Emerson, Jung, Jesus, Krishna, Ra and Rumi, are a few members of my community who are disincarnate. But they are as much a part of my community as the incarnate friends I walk and talk with. My community is unbound by time and space, a community where external things like job, wealth, race, and age and vaccines are not the focus. Being part of this community helps me navigate many divides including vaxer/anti-vaxer. I am vaccinated. Many in my community are vaccinated and some are not. We are not focused on one another's choice regarding vaccinations because we are bound by deeper concerns - love for our planet and for the Divine within all beings.