Our entertainment has failed us. It’s been psychologically harming us. It promises us a happily ever after. The perfection of the ideal finale. The villain is vanquished, the hero prevails, two flawless lovers kiss, we fade to black, and the story is over. Everywhere we turn, we’re surrounded by this template of storytelling. TV, movies, books, comics, news, magazines, social media. It’s what we know. It’s how we assume things go. But not enough emphasis is paid on explaining the purpose of Story. Too many of us expect our lives to play out the way the movies do, and are sorely disappointed when they don’t.
Story captures knowledge in a neat package to be easily retold and passed down. It’s how we attempt to understand our world. We make sense of things through stories we hear, or those we tell ourselves. Since the beginning of time, Story is how we’ve explained to others how things are. There’s an established pattern to storytelling, and it goes like this:
Stories have a linear progression where things move forward through space to another point further away. Usually, the subject of the story is left in better circumstances than they began. They endure the trial of the climax, things quiet down, then wrap up with a satisfying resolution. Subconsciously, after noticing this pattern in the stories we hear, we begin to expect this pattern to play out for us too.
Instead, we’re faced with Reality, which is entirely different than Story. Reality goes something like this:
We begin at the outermost point of the spiral and progress inward. We do not travel outward. Our journey circles us around the same inner point, over and over again. We relive the same kinds of challenges, the same patterns, the same themes. The longer we walk the path, the most intense things become. We’re given less space to move, we face challenges more quickly, and feel them more keenly. Reality is a journey into our Selves.
Believing our path is supposed to take us somewhere wildly different than we already are, where everything will be swiftly resolved in a satisfying way, and we will live happily ever after in perfection, is Myth. It’s Story. And Story is not Life.
Because of this misguided belief that Story is Life, we are too hard on ourselves. Our expectations are extremely skewed. We lament we haven’t met our Princess or Prince Charming, the evil menace has been allowed to survive, we don’t live in a glorious castle, we aren’t adored by the masses, we’re not rich and powerful, and not the epitome of success.
We must look hard at this tendency and restrict Story to its useful place. We must not allow it to destroy our hope, and our capacity for joy. It’s not a failure if your life isn’t as pretty as a fairytale, or any other kind of Story you’re told. Casting yourself as the hero of your tale doesn’t properly allow for the blessing of failure. For only through failure do we learn, gain strength, and grow. Likewise, casting others as the villain doesn’t permit them their humanity. None of us are perfect while in these flawed human forms, but all of us—without exception—are interconnected fractal pieces of the same divine Source energy. We’re all made of pure love and we all have the same potential.
As an author, I’ve delved deep into the truth of the difference of Story and Reality. Story requires us to torment our hero; to throw them into peril so they can overcome it and triumph. It’s not an exciting Story unless something awful happens to the ones we love most. Many times, I’ve written a book where my beloved characters have finally found their happily ever after, only to be asked for a sequel. A sequel means more peril, more torment, a diversion from the happy ending into more danger. Without that, the Story is boring and unfulfilling.
Story has an established template. All Stories are just versions of the same thing, with the details changed around.
Reality has no template. It’s what we make of it. We’re not required to go through a specific period of torment to reach our happy ending. In fact, our truth is that there is no ending!
Think about that. There is no end. Sure, this life will finish, but we’ll go on. The lives we’ve touched will also go on, and our impact on them will extend our presence infinitely.
The thing about spirals is that if you look at them from afar, they resemble a circle. A singular point. I’d argue that our experience of life is also like a singular point. The scenery changes around us, but we remain where we are, which is the Now. Our past is irrelevant and likewise our future. All that ever matters is where you are Now. What you’re dealing with Now. What you’re carrying on your back Now. What you’re clinging to. What’s holding you back. Not what’s behind you or in front of you. What’s here. Right here.
Anything you need for your journey through life is found within. It’s not out there in the world. You don’t need to go on an epic quest to find anything. There is no hero coming to save you, and you’re not required to go save anyone else. Rather, use your senses to explore your Now more profoundly. Intensify the way you feel, see, listen, speak, touch, smell, and taste. Spend a lot of time with yourself. Stop ignoring Reality in favor of the simple, escapist thrill of Story. Leave Story behind and instead discover your truth. Story is a great distraction, but it has nothing to do with intuition and our connection to the divine. Our real guidance comes from Being, which is the origin of Story. We need to literally go right to the Source to really discover what’s really going on.
Releasing the mirage of Story is an important stage in our growth. When we stop expecting things to play out a certain way, and instead investigate how they are actually happening, we’ll travel exactly where we need to go in our spiral path. We’ll free ourselves from the burdens we’ve placed upon ourselves. We can realize we don’t need to resemble a character in a Story in order to be valid and perfect in our own ways.
Let go of what you’ve been conditioned to want. The only perfection is found in the God energy. Humans are not and will never be perfect. Human “perfection”, when it is attained, is always hollow and sad because our value is not in what adventures we’ve had, the place we live, the way we look, or the details of our romances. We’re not failures if our life is not like a movie. We’re beings who never “fade to black”. We learn, and grow, and climb higher with each twist of the spiral path we walk. There is no limit to how far we may rise, or how long we can take to get there.
Story always has conditions, but Reality is whatever you make of it.
So, what will YOU make of it?
Love and blessings, friends.
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