Synchronicity and Authenticity

On my West Highland Creagan blog I am doing Sarah Ban Breathnach's new Simple Abundance, which is all about becoming our authentic selves.  I wanted to share this 2013 essay on authenticity here in hopes that you would join me over at West Highland Creagan.....

SYNCHRONICITY AND AUTHENTICITY:

  WHAT'S ONE GOT TO DO WITH THE OTHER?

In preparation for entering a writing contest earlier this year I found a journal entry from 2001--an excerpt from Sonia Choquette’s book, “Your Heart’s Desire”:  “If a goal is not an authentic heart’s desire, our spirit is bound and determined to rebel against creating it because our souls want to remain true to who we really are.”  The goal that I’d been journaling about was to become a published author of children’s stories.  I’d recently sent off query letters to several publishers—this was when they were still accepting such letters—only to receive just as many rejection cards.

Now all these many years later, after honing my skill, writing more stories, attending writing conferences attended by editors and agents in order to be given the privilege of sending them my manuscript, and then only hearing back from half of them—all rejection letters—I find myself no further toward that goal. 

My 2001 entry also spoke of the synchronicity of coming across the Choquette quote at that time.   Since it was now obvious to me my true heart’s desire wasn’t to be published (since I was ready to give up on that) I asked myself what was my true heart’s desire.  I realized it was to be able to love myself and others the way God loves.   To be published was just the means to loving myself.

So, I decided to write about it and started my book with “Day 1” and stated its purpose:  To discover how to let God love me.  I’m embarrassed to say there is no “Day 2” to be found.  But that’s not to say I did not fulfill my purpose or go on to write about it, because I did.  In 2003 I wrote daily on the subject and went on to publish it as a Blog in 2011.  In 2012 in a new Blog I explored the ways in which God reveals Himself in every day sorts of things as revealed in Romans 1:20:  “For since the creation of the world His invisible attributes are clearly seen, being understood by the things that are made, even His eternal power and Godhead.”  Through my writing I’ve come to see that my desire to be loved and to love was as easy as laying down all judgment.   Oh, I still have my myriad of feelings about things, but I try not to judge them as right or wrong—they just are.  I try to take a step back and see them for what they are—ego-centric.  I’m learning that God intended us to be soul-centric.  It is from my soul—that which is of God—that I can experience and be the love my true heart’s desire was showing me back in 2001. 

Whether or not I ever publish my children’s story about a snowman who becomes a little white dog so he can search for his best friend, Poetry the Calico Cat, I realize that even my story is a metaphor of my search to find my authentic self.  

© 2013 Cathy Gilleylen Schultz

Synchronicity is one of my favorite topics.  I would love to hear your synchronicity stories....