What does love do?

1. It's a journey of self-discovery of Who You Are in reality.

2. And then, taking your lessons learned and give it back to others.

That's the circle of love.

But the challenge of pursuing The Path of Love is that it never stops. It keeps going. It deepens. It doesn't matter how old you are. Even right now, I've been asking myself and those I love, "What do you NOT want to carry into your next decade?" As I live through my 50s and if I make it to my 60s, I want to live more and more in truth. I want to deepen my understanding of love and I want to discover what it really means to live in reality.

reality [ ree-al-i-tee ]

noun,plural re·al·i·ties for 3, 5-7.

1. the state or quality of being real.

2. resemblance to what is real.

3. a real thing or fact.

4. real things, facts, or events taken as a whole; state of affairs:

5. the reality of the business world; vacationing to escape reality.

6. Philosophy.

   1. something that exists independently of ideas concerning it.

   2. something that exists independently of all other things and from which all other things derive.

7. something that is real.

8. something that constitutes a real or actual thing, as distinguished from something that is merely apparent.

Even this pursuit of What is Reality? seems like a fleeting effort. Like a waste of time. But there's another part of me that feels that I must do it. At the very least, to start the conversation, to push the limits of my thinking. I refuse to be complacent in my thought life. That's one place I don't want to become stagnant. Because even if I can't move a muscle, I'll still be able to think. And it's through thought that all of life is formed. 

What I hope to accomplish this coming year, in 2024, is put a mental framework around what reality is. It's not what we think. But at the same time it is.

"There are two realities: there is the reality that is: the things we can't affect, that just are; and there is the reality that we can affect: the things we can change about ourselves and our circumstances."

-Marvello V

The reality we can't affect

One example of the reality we can't affect is death. We can't stop our bodies from withering toward death. Death is inevitable. At least our physical death. Many of us believe there is life after death, but we won't know for a fact until it happens. But, I'm of the belief that, "energy never dies, it transforms." So, as human beings we are a bundle of energy. That energy doesn't just disappear, it becomes something else. What that something else is, is to be determined. 

There is the reality of gravity, oxygen, life sustained by water consumption. And there is the reality that humans will be humans and we can't affect their behaviors. In essence, there are things about reality that just are. They exist and will always exist. We can't necessarily affect them, but we can work around them. Which leads us to the next thought.

The reality we can affect

That's always us: the way we think, the beliefs and perceptions we act on. The reality we can affect always begins with self-awareness. An observance of our own inner being. Seeing ourselves as we truly are, not what we wish them to be, or hope to be, but What We Are Right Now. That is not easy to do. We think we're doing it, but most of us are not. How do I know? Because many of us don't like to question our personal thoughts and beliefs. We like to think they're the truth, that they're right, or they're real; and everyone else is wrong. 

Personally, we do ourselves a disservice if we don't question our own beliefs and perceptions from time to time, because we can end up stuck in a way of thinking that is stagnant or no longer useful for our evolution. To me, life demands that our thinking evolve as we age. Our age doesn't determine our wisdom or knowledge. Age is just a number. What makes us wise is how we treat people and what we give back to life that helps others. 

So, the reality we can affect is our own thoughts, words, and actions. And in some sense, when we change our inner reality, we shift the reality around us. Our presence can have an affect on the reality of others, and maybe even the broader world. Ideas and thoughts float through the world like radio waves and others can catch on to similar ideas/thoughts anywhere in the world.

My goal for 2024 is to share with you the lessons I've learned about reality through my studies of self-reflection, deeper healing, physics, quantum physics, and of course spirituality. I hope you'll join me on the journey.

#whatisreality #pursuitoflove