Reality isn’t all it’s cracked up to be. Our external senses don’t tell us everything, just enough to function in the world around us, to pretend it’s orderly and makes sense. In a way it does–in a way. But meanwhile, there’s a whole other world inside of us, in our thoughts, our dreams, our imaginations. And in many ways it’s every bit as real as the external world our limited senses perceive. These manipulated images (or in some cases accidentally captured) playfully, darkly and thoughtfully reflect that inner world.
(Click on any image to enlarge it, or to start slide show)
“Reality is merely an illusion, albeit a very persistent one.” ~Albert Einstein*
“Reality doesn’t impress me. I only believe in intoxication, in ecstasy, and when ordinary life shackles me, I escape, one way or another. No more walls.” ~Anaïs Nin
“Reality leaves a lot to the imagination.” ~John Lennon
“Reality is frequently inaccurate.” ~Douglas Adams
“Most people believe the mind to be a mirror, more or less accurately reflecting the world outside them, not realizing on the contrary that the mind is itself the principal element of creation.” ~Rabindranath Tagore
“The most beautiful thing we can experience is the mysterious. It is the source of all true art and all science.” ~Albert Einstein
*Likely a paraphrase of his friend Swiss-Italian engineer Michelle Besso’s words.
My Featured Blogger this week is Karyn of Saturated in Seattle. You can probably guess where she lives, but what matters more is what, and Who, lives in her. Her words: “This is me; all of me. Present. Authentic. Vulnerable. Always learning. Forever growing. Humble and yet sometimes proud. A wretch and yet a saint. I’m complex and simple, but always myself.” Karyn’s authenticity and character have touched me many times.
I hung up the phone and promptly fell into a heap, sobbing uncontrollably. Unable to catch my breath, my mind raced from one tragic event to the next, spiraling deeper into despair with each scene my memory recalled.
Have you ever moved, almost without realizing it, from learning about another’s burdens to helping carry them? If we don’t share one another’s burdens, are we even truly alive? 
I don’t usually make New Year’s Resolutions, though I do have goals. More importantly, I have relationships. Although I sometimes wish I didn’t because, frankly, I’m not very good at them. I’m much more at home in Mitchland where I know every inch of the terrain, where I create carefully constructed missives and distribute them like worms of wisdom to a hungry world. It’s all so neat, so tidy, so completely controllable.
