As I fly 32,000 feet above the ground, I glance upon an epic natural world below that has no clue I’m riding above in an aluminum tube with the jet stream. The disconnect between my idea of the world, and what I see below me, is held in front of me as plainly as a marque.

The earth presents herself with a wry smirk, not as I concoct her to be in my mind, yet as she simply stands. She wears proud lines and gashes from millions of years of experience with the elements, beautiful, as the smile lines creating caverns around an octogenarian’s eyes.

And she is happy I finally see her for what she is — a testament to the now.

There is so much to be aware of — so much to be in awe of, if we only allow ourselves the time to absorb the reality that sits in front of us. Not the pain brought on by disappointment, which can become our reality. Not the limitation we feel we are trapped beneath, which can become our reality. But the wide-open canvas that is constantly set before us. 

With what do we choose to decorate our perspective?

This is not to discount the valuable lessons learned through pain and disappointment. Yet it is important to remember that pain, particularly emotional pain, is simply a lesson in our decision to dance with our ideas of self-limitation. 

Unless we know where our own boundaries exist, we cannot reach past our own perceived borders. And if we choose not to teach past our own personal emotional walls, we stop growing in any one direction.

That which does not evolve then dies away.

It is within the human to design to crave growth because we crave survival. Humanity changes at a breakneck pace both genetically, spiritually, and sociologically. 

From our limited and often distracted perspective on the ground, mired in our own entrenched earthly woes, we as a species appear to drag from one evolutionary opportunity to the next. Yet when comparing ourselves to the vast array of our OffWorld cousins, some of whom have dotted the galaxies with their cultural brilliance for millions of years — we’re doing pretty darn well for a species that insists on starting from scratch every 20,000 years or so.

With our virtual world more real to many than that of the physical, our reality is crafted exactly as we see fit. This is both a fascinating exercise in manifestation and perspective, and a seductively dangerous dance with rigidity.

For instance, we filter our news feeds with perspectives that mirror our own. This both enhances our creation of the world around us and also limits our perspective while living day-to-day in a physical world that is not solely controlled and created by our own desires.

As a species we are deeply impressionable. Again, this is part of our design, the human soul ever-starving for experience. As such, we seek to impart ourselves with knowledge that makes sense to us — that feels good.
The hazard in this time frame, the double-edged sword of filters and feeds, is a loss in our ability to factor in perspectives that may not mirror our own.

Considering that humanity is a grand experiment in perceived separation — as we are constantly connected through the heart chakra with one another, Creator, and all things earth — this illusion of creating our own world to mirror our own understanding of it then becomes both a lesson in manifestation and at times a prison.

Since the earth, the world, all physical reality bears the weight of surrounding elements to bring through change and evolution, if we seek to surround ourselves with only that which reflects our very core perceptions, it stands to reason that we don’t evolve past our current understanding.

This is not the time frame to insist on converting others to our perception, but to hold a space for others’ perceptions while they hold a space for ours. The antiquated notion that we all must “agree” in order for change to occur is not in line with diverse evolution. It is more accurate to note that though we may disagree, the art of Ascension is in the dignity with which we proceed forward while building bridges to solve problems from all angles.

This union of intention, not like-thought or group-think, then becomes the glue which transcends opinions and turns principles into action steps.

There is a delicate balance in reaching past our own bubble of perceived reality in order to grow our viewpoint for learning, and holding sacred the space within us that is our precious sanctuary of healing, connection and understanding. As we would not allow a person with muddy shoes to track carelessly across our brand new white carpeting, we protectively reserve the space for our own core within. Yet in doing so there is no need to disavow the very reality of mud on the earth.

This balance of what we see, what we’ve experienced, what we know, what we think we know, what we want to learn, what we choke on as the Universe urges us past our comfort zones in order to learn, what frightens us because we are unsure of who we are, what frightens us because of exactly who we are — this balance of all options is the great exercise known as Being Human. 

Being Human is our greatest purpose of existence; to be alive on the earth, to show ourselves that we are far more than we perceive ourselves to be at the same time that we realize we are far smaller than we perceive ourselves to be. 

 It is in this understanding, this dichotomy, this ability to both create and imitate at the same time, to both broadcast and reflect simultaneously, to be the innovator and in doing so become the mirror of innovation to others, it is in this flexibility of being human that literally nothing is outside of our grasp.

Unless we need it to be. And that is up to us.

All is as well as you require it to be in your immediate world. The sky shall remain the sky, the earth shall remain the earth, and the sea shall lull the planet into a tidal sleep as it has for eons before our bubble — my bubble, your bubble — bounced on the surface of this tapestry of agreement with both perception and physics that we call “reality”. 

And that, at the end of the day — is what’s real.