{"id":666,"date":"2020-08-03T17:05:54","date_gmt":"2020-08-03T17:05:54","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/hughesgallery.net\/barbarahelveyhughes\/?p=666"},"modified":"2020-08-03T18:36:27","modified_gmt":"2020-08-03T18:36:27","slug":"is-this-reality-real","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/hughesgallery.net\/barbarahelveyhughes\/2020\/08\/03\/is-this-reality-real\/","title":{"rendered":"Is this reality real?"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<figure class=\"wp-block-image size-large is-resized\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/hughesgallery.net\/barbarahelveyhughes\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/08\/7-27-2020-long-road-1024x414.jpg\" alt=\"\" class=\"wp-image-668\" width=\"370\" height=\"149\" srcset=\"https:\/\/hughesgallery.net\/barbarahelveyhughes\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/08\/7-27-2020-long-road-1024x414.jpg 1024w, https:\/\/hughesgallery.net\/barbarahelveyhughes\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/08\/7-27-2020-long-road-300x121.jpg 300w, https:\/\/hughesgallery.net\/barbarahelveyhughes\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/08\/7-27-2020-long-road-768x310.jpg 768w, https:\/\/hughesgallery.net\/barbarahelveyhughes\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/08\/7-27-2020-long-road-1536x620.jpg 1536w, https:\/\/hughesgallery.net\/barbarahelveyhughes\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/08\/7-27-2020-long-road-604x244.jpg 604w, https:\/\/hughesgallery.net\/barbarahelveyhughes\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/08\/7-27-2020-long-road.jpg 1966w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 370px) 100vw, 370px\" \/><\/figure>\n\n\n\n<figure class=\"wp-block-audio\"><audio controls src=\"https:\/\/hughesgallery.net\/barbarahelveyhughes\/audio\/Integrating%20Synchronicity%20%23%20I.m4a?_t=1596477888\"><\/audio><\/figure>\n\n\n\n<figure class=\"wp-block-audio\"><audio controls src=\"https:\/\/hughesgallery.net\/barbarahelveyhughes\/audio\/Integrating%20Synchronicity%20II.m4a?_t=1596477970\"><\/audio><\/figure>\n\n\n\n<figure class=\"wp-block-audio\"><audio controls src=\"https:\/\/hughesgallery.net\/barbarahelveyhughes\/audio\/Integrating%20Synchronicity%20III.m4a?_t=1596478048\"><\/audio><\/figure>\n\n\n\n<figure class=\"wp-block-audio\"><audio controls src=\"https:\/\/hughesgallery.net\/barbarahelveyhughes\/audio\/Integrating%20Synchronicity%20IV.m4a?_t=1596478124\"><\/audio><\/figure>\n\n\n<p class=\"fonts-plugin-block\" style=\"font-weight: normal;font-size: 15px;line-height: 1.3\"><strong><em>Integrating Synchronicity<\/em><\/strong><br>\u00a0<br>Is it possible to be \u2018aware\u2019 and to live our lives with some semblance of recognition of the web of synchronicities unfolding around us and embedding themselves into the very fabric of this life, so we, and the Universe, can work together to fulfill our intentions?\u00a0<br>\u00a0<br>Many intentions remain dormant, because most of the time we live on the surface of the cosmic and universal energy which reverberates as our organic lives.\u00a0 We \u2018surf\u2019 our lives.\u00a0 We surf the energy of each life, instead of diving deeply into it.\u00a0 But, who cares, right?\u00a0 As Rumi said \u201cThis is not the real reality.\u00a0 The real reality is behind the curtain.\u00a0 In Truth, we are not here.\u00a0 This is our shadow.\u201d<br>\u00a0<br>I remember how I felt when I read <em>The Celestine Prophecy<\/em>, <em>First Thunder<\/em> and the <em>Conversations with God<\/em> series, as well as <em>Das Energi<\/em> many years prior to those.\u00a0 I was struck by the similarity of the messages contained within each; a recurring familiarity, a pattern of awareness within my life \u2013 some message, some \u201clesson\u201d the universe kept attempting to teach, so I could \u2018see\u2019 more precisely \u2013 so I could \u2018be\u2019 more \u2018real\u2019.\u00a0 And, still, that message keeps appearing and I keep thinking through situations, believing I understand, only to have the lesson rear again and stop me in my tracks, immobile and afraid to put one foot or one thought in front of the other and thus allow intuition (my Core) to lead my Spirit (a mirror of Core) out of each personal quandary and back to point.\u00a0 Does this ever end?<br>\u00a0<br>Repeatedly, a chord strikes and plays. \u00a0I recognize, contemplate, and integrate within my genuine \u2018self\u2019 whatever lesson presents itself: \u00a0I sing it loudly and at least, at times, clearly.\u00a0 I believe I suffer no (or, little) doubt in my understanding and even less in my ability to finally see through the obscurity of the glass: and I allow the genuine lesson to reveal itself and to teach me what I\u2019ve requested.\u00a0 Assuredly, I\u2019ve integrated it: and yet, eventually, I see I have not. \u00a0Perhaps, I\u2019ve simply woven it into my life on a superficial level ~ somewhere my ego can \u2018deal with it\u2019 and, ultimately, cast it aside with no guilt and even less shame for not having genuinely learned much of anything.\u00a0<br>\u00a0<br>But, during moments of clarity, I feel as if I stand on the pinnacle of the highest mountain, turning 360\u00b0 and gazing out with such bliss, such complete wonder and extreme joy that I believe if I wander any deeper into the moment, my very heart and soul might burst and I will shoot forth, like bubbles effervescing forever, into eternity.\u00a0 For, what I witness from that vista is so startlingly beautiful, so immensely glorious that it awakens something inside me about the totality of what I see and feel, with such fierce sincerity that the very fineness and the intricate connectivity of everything is incomprehensible to my organic mind \u2013 indeed, I believe I can never understand it within this organic dimension; but that it, surely, must be discerned on some \u2018other\u2019 level \u2013 something far more intricately woven, like the lace of a spider\u2019s web vis a\u2019 vis the clumsy lace made by human hands.\u00a0<br>\u00a0<br>So, when a billion, billion dots appear and, abruptly, lines shoot from one to another and connect all of them in ways and patterns my brain has never, previously, conceived, but which is <strong>familiar<\/strong>, acutely familiar to some \u2018other\u2019 part of who I am, I understand it has to be my Spirit Core.\u00a0 The great \u201cI am\u201d.\u00a0 The \u201cgod-in-me\/god-in-you\u201d.<br>\u00a0<br>***************************************<br><br>During this life, I began my journey with a childhood vision of a previous life, which I didn\u2019t understand and couldn\u2019t identify \u2013 and, it scared me. \u00a0Does chance exist?\u00a0 Or, is there, truly, an undercurrent of energy woven through all the events, people, places, things, moments, and circumstances of <strong><u>all<\/u><\/strong> our lives, connecting virtually everything and everyone \u2013 all of us?\u00a0 Is there an invisible fabric consisting of threads we don\u2019t see with our eyes, but which we can detect and attend only on some \u2018other\u2019 cognitive level?\u00a0<br>\u00a0<br>For me, directly after my childhood flashback, I recognized that every moment, every word, every situation I observed or found myself within ~ all the circumstances, all the people, places and things which entered my life had purpose and intent.\u00a0 Everything seemed to possess a message or an agenda woven into it and it all awaited my discovery and, then, my attempt to decipher, to understand and to implement it into my life and to grow.\u00a0 Eventually, I recognized how, without her or him, without that family member or that neighbor, without that book, that phrase, that teacher, that moment, that anything &#8211; everything in my life would be different.\u00a0 No question: there was guidance embedded within everything which found its way into my orbit: purpose in all of it.\u00a0<br>\u00a0<br>I believe it is my job to discover why I live in this time and place and what I intend to accomplish by returning.\u00a0 We are merely puzzles awaiting completion.<br>\u00a0<br>At one point, during college, I was convinced that everything schemed to unravel the very cloth I determined to weave as my life \u2013 it seemed something tried, repeatedly, to gain my attention.\u00a0 I was wrong on many levels.\u00a0\u00a0 Yes, \u2018it\u2019 was trying to get my attention, but it was not unravelling anything ~<br>I did a fine job without help from anyone or anything else.<br>\u00a0<br>The synchronicities of my life conspired merely to help me \u2013 help me <strong><u>weave<\/u><\/strong> and help me understand what I was doing. \u00a0Yet, I followed them around and seemed always to be quite capable of pulling threads and destroy whatever small beginnings of understanding and awareness I gained.\u00a0 And with that, I eventually learned persistence and tenacity.\u00a0 I also learned to stop and think \u2013 at times, at least.<br>\u00a0<br>And then, I forget about it.\u00a0 I resume my plodding way.\u00a0 I fall back to earth, when I knew I should be flying; soaring, in fact, but somehow I always feel anchored.\u00a0 It never ceases to amaze me just how often I can trip myself.\u00a0 Mess it all up and then bemoan the fact that I can\u2019t seem to, spiritually, move forward.\u00a0 Yeah\u2026that\u2019s my MO.<br>\u00a0<br>But, the universe is also tenacious and persistent, for time only exists in our minds \u2013 we invented it, right?\u00a0 The universe has \u201call the time in the world\u201d.\u00a0 We, however, as organic beings, have limits.\u00a0 If only we could remember all those other existences and connect all those dots, we might make progress into this adventure of becoming and learning just how to recognize, decipher and use the synchronicities as they unfold around us.\u00a0<br>\u00a0<br>Wise ones have presented clues throughout humankind\u2019s existence \u2013 all we are required do every now and again is stop, recognize, think, and process.\u00a0 Then, act.\u00a0 We may stumble and fall backward, but if everything is, truly, perfect, then that\u2019s also part of the plan.\u00a0 For each of us.<br>\u00a0<br>With every breath, with every awareness, every prayer, every heartbeat, all thoughts, words, deeds we move away from \u2018shadow\u2019 and closer to \u2018being\u2019.\u00a0 But, perhaps the Truth we most definitively do not want to perceive is this: until we recognize the energy currents surrounding us, and surrounding everything; until we begin connecting the dots and allowing understandings to unfold and integrate into our very essences our fabric sits <strong>as an imagination<\/strong>, somewhere.\u00a0<br>\u00a0<br>Until we connect and begin the move into it, life exists as an undercurrent ~ thought awaiting to be born.<br>\u00a0<br>***********************************************<br><br>In 1998, I wrote a poem called <strong><em>We Live as Shadow, One<\/em><\/strong>.\u00a0 It\u2019s a tribute to my Irish ancestor\u2019s perseverance and determination to make a good life for themselves and their families during a tragedy (The Famine).\u00a0 This morning, as I read Deepak Chopra\u2019s <em>The Spontaneous Fulfillment of Desire<\/em> and Rumi\u2019s quoted poem (above), my own poem title sprang to mind and got me wondering, yet again, about my personal concept of \u2018reality\u2019: about my dots and how they construct and then connect.\u00a0 Veils, walls, mirrors, time, dots, past lives, Deja vu, patterns, physics, poetry, thoughts, symbols, synchronicities, etc., etc., etc.\u00a0 By the time we figure out how much begs our consideration we also realize we possess all too little time.\u00a0 Aye, there\u2019s that rub &#8211; again.\u00a0 It\u2019s all part of our profound puzzle.<br>\u00a0<br>We live singularly, much of our lives.\u00a0 Even within relationships, we are primarily solitary beings attempting to become communal \u2013 return to the whole.\u00a0 It\u2019s only when we initiate a \u2018cosmic leap\u2019, remove the veil (yeah, it\u2019s up to each of us to yank off our own veil) and act that we can begin the wondrous ritual of weaving the cloth of our intentions into the fabric of what we call \u2018life\u2019, <strong>this<\/strong> unique life.\u00a0 Some things require batteries, some things require actions.<br>\u00a0<br>How many times must the universe organize circumstances to present us with certain people, places, things, opportunities, situations, before we begin to \u2018see clearly\u2019?\u00a0 The neon lights blink and line our path, revealing the way &#8211; the manner of our birth intentions &#8211; but we are required to place one foot in front of the other and begin the journey, moving onto and into it.\u00a0 If we lazily refuse to act or fearfully refuse to act while within our awareness, we might encourage the probability that whatever synchronicity appeared to inspire our faith and our action will surely, sometime, disappear.\u00a0 Who knows when, next, another will surface in our life?\u00a0 Or, <strong><u>if<\/u><\/strong>.<br>\u00a0<br>Imagine your cloth half finished, almost finished or maybe there\u2019s only a row or two of woven:\u00a0 a wind stirs and tears at it, unravels some portion of it.\u00a0 Or, imagine your cloth simply dormant \u2013 becoming neither larger, nor smaller, just sitting inert on the loom, waiting.\u00a0 Now, imagine you alert \u2013 connected, because you think, you exist within a certain awareness, you \u2018get it\u2019 or at least try to get it.\u00a0 You\u2019ve lifted your veil and you act.\u00a0\u00a0 You begin a different cloth; one that fits you, in the now \u2013 your cloth, with your intentions.\u00a0 You think, speak and act that which calls into being the life and circumstances you intended before your birth, and which have been calling to you during this life, begging you to embrace them.\u00a0 There\u2019s so much to each life ~ how do we decide what to embrace and what to release?\u00a0 Will our cloth become a beautiful tapestry or nothing?<br><br>******************************************************<br>\u00a0<br>Do we \u2018anticipate\u2019 our lives?\u00a0 Do our intentions (our purest energy) exist on a cellular level?\u00a0 I believe they do and we intuitively know they exist and however difficult it might be for many of us to \u2018swallow\u2019 that idea, when we do embrace it, we begin our real journey: our lives begin to throw open doors and windows, previously shut;\u00a0 walls begin to crumble and allow us passage into another place;\u00a0 we begin to move into our intentions and suddenly the people, places and things we need to assist us, appear, as if some magician waved a wand and granted our wishes.\u00a0 All the universe orchestrates to present us with our chosen reality, but if we are stuck in ego, if we choose to walk away, if we ignore it or are too lazy to move into it, too frightened then we may eventually wonder why life seems so shallow; why we suffer some unidentified \u201cvoid\u201d inside our souls and hearts; why we feel so immensely unworthy, when, in fact it is <strong><u>we<\/u><\/strong>, who have chosen and walked the path to disappointment, disillusionment, unfulfillment, lacking that which we desire, when all we need do is whisper awake our intentions and call our deepest desires to us.\u00a0<br>\u00a0<br>We <strong><u>choose<\/u><\/strong> to live marginally.<br>\u00a0<br>We <strong><u>choose<\/u><\/strong> to surf our lives, rather than dive deep into the river and swim like hell or run those rapids.<br>\u00a0<br>Now, imagine your dots suddenly connecting and the green lights flashing, flashing, flashing!<br>\u00a0<br>Obstacles disappear; gauntlets \u2013 removed!<br>\u00a0<br>Imagine partial understandings evolving into your Truth, your script \u2013 your STORY!\u00a0<br>\u00a0<br>Imagine fulfillment; that sense of being aware of the interconnectedness of everything, everywhere.<br>\u00a0<br>Imagine <strong><u>that<\/u><\/strong> defining your life.<br>\u00a0<br>BOOM!<br>\u00a0<br>\u00a0<br>by Barbara Helvey Hughes, 2017\/2020<br>\u00a0<\/p>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":667,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[4],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-666","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-essays"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/hughesgallery.net\/barbarahelveyhughes\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/666","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/hughesgallery.net\/barbarahelveyhughes\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/hughesgallery.net\/barbarahelveyhughes\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/hughesgallery.net\/barbarahelveyhughes\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/hughesgallery.net\/barbarahelveyhughes\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=666"}],"version-history":[{"count":6,"href":"https:\/\/hughesgallery.net\/barbarahelveyhughes\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/666\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":675,"href":"https:\/\/hughesgallery.net\/barbarahelveyhughes\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/666\/revisions\/675"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/hughesgallery.net\/barbarahelveyhughes\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/667"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/hughesgallery.net\/barbarahelveyhughes\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=666"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/hughesgallery.net\/barbarahelveyhughes\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=666"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/hughesgallery.net\/barbarahelveyhughes\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=666"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}