Perceptions

This is the e-mail I got today from Notes from the Universe (thanks Gillette for introducing me).

Life is not what you see, but what you've projected. It's not what you've felt, but what you've decided. It's not what you've experienced, but how you've remembered it. It's not what you've forged, but what you've allowed. And it's not who's appeared, but who you've summoned.

I always enjoy the little gems of wisdom in these notes. Sometimes, they make me go, hmmm. Sometimes, they make me go, huh? I reread this one several times. The truth of it just kept sinking in. It made me re-evaluate my life. It made me think of times when I passively experienced things, when I felt powerless to change the situation I was in. It made me look at my past and consider how my perception of it differed from others' perceptions. It made me look at my part in creating that reality.

I do believe that we create our own reality. Our thoughts, our actions, our desires and our perceptions, all play into what makes up our lives and experiences. We can be assertive or passive, we can be proactive or reactive. Reality is not necessarily factual, it is our perception of the situation. Several people can observe the same situation and each perceive it differently. That doesn't make any of them wrong, it just makes them individuals.

I think about how J has changed my perceptions and my reality. He empowers me, He frees me. He has restored the passion and the innocence of my youth. He has also embraced the wisdom and the strength of my maturity. He encourages my submissiveness, but He discourages my passivity. I have often wondered how we found each other, But I now realize that I summoned Him. I am blessed that He was gracious enough to respond. He is now my reality.

The minute I heard my first love story, I started looking for you, not knowing how blind that was.

Lovers don't finally meet somewhere, they're in each other all along.
~Rumi

Image by F. Cayley Robinson. Found on Google.