Reality vs. Experience

I stumbled upon a profound quote many years ago. In an instant it dictated an etching on my eternal conscious that will last 9 minutes beyond eternity.

"We don't see things as they are,
we see them as we are"
- Anais Nin

If you truly know me then you are aware that I have experienced a great many things.
My Reality.
You know that I keep an universal view of reality that evolves with every sensation I experience just as everyone grows in some way or another by what they touch, taste, see, smell and hear. Although, to know me means knowing this process is in complete over-drive in every moment due to my Adult Attention Deficit Hyperactive Disorder & an emotionally spiritual passion so great that if our sun had begun to burn dim, I would bury my heart into the ground so it could give our earth the power to continue to rotate. Now that is exactly what I describe as beautiful passion, though some may rather refer to that as being emotionally unstable. To which I say... "Yes, stability never creates, it only stands still & God choose me to move mountains into the seas and make waves. Why else would he call me his Sun?"

Now let me have a minute or so to work my way backwards through this all. I want to touch more upon this powerful quote that has stayed with me for the better part of 10 years now. I have always held to the philosophy that "personal experiences shape our realities." Although, recently this philosophy has been experiencing more of the "which came 1st, the chicken or the egg" question.

I do believe that every experience we have in every moment of life is creating a new understanding in our reality. Now we take the new reality into the next experience with have in the next moment, create a new reality and there our reality cycles roll. Every moment of everyday our reality cycles gain momentum. Spinning a cyclone of experiences into a whirlwind of realities. What I have most recently realized is that because we take our own reality into new experiences, we also pull a total different reality out of the same exact experiences. The outrageous part of this all is that it seems so easy a concept to understand but the application is nowhere as easy to imply.

Here is a simple example. I have a conversation with someone I am dating over dinner. We are both experiencing the same surroundings, smells, courses in the meal but experiences that universally same reality in much different ways. I may think it went great from beginning to end. She felt it lacked luster and intellectually stimulating conversation. She may feel like I spoke to much about myself and not asked her enough questions. We both have a reality we walked into this date with, experienced the same experience but left with the completely different realities just as we came into it with.

Now the reason I wanted to expound on this particular subject today is because as individuals I feel it is important we understand the position and/or plight of the next man or woman. We are always so quick to judge and hold someone responsible for their actions but we must realize that they only can grab a reality out of every experience by how which the way they experience it. So do not judge their realities by your own because as many times as you can explain your reality, they are experiencing something different.