Everything is relationship.

“Contrary to popular beliefs, the cure for lovelessness and loneliness is not company but contact with Reality. The moment you touch this Reality, you will know what freedom and love are.” ~ Anthony de Mello

The idea in my last post—that reality is a simple yet powerful model—really seemed to connect with people. Clearly, this idea taps into something fundamentally true, something I’ve come to realize through my own exploration. I’ve spent a lifetime immersing myself in different ways of understanding reality—questioning assumptions and testing out ideas to find what’s truly solid and useful. This exploration has led me to a surprisingly straightforward conclusion, perhaps even too simple for those used to complex and abstract theories.

Reality, at its core, is relationship. Period. Relationship isn’t just something that happens; it’s what’s going on. It is, unequivocally, what it’s all about. This isn’t philosophical abstraction; it’s the essence of how we actually experience existence. Every sight, thought, and feeling is animated by relationship, by the intricate and mysterious ways in which everything and everyone connects and interacts.

A good life flourishes through conscious awareness and active engagement with this fundamental reality. Deep down, we know this. Yet, illusions—hypnotic thoughts and behaviors shaped by societal conditioning—pull us away, dulling our deeper intuitions. So, the challenge is to come back to reality and fully participate in this vibrant dance of relationship—attuning to the spirit that moves through us, connecting us to one another and the living world.

This truth becomes strikingly clear when we reflect on the most common regrets of the dying. In their final moments, people rarely mourn the achievements they pursued or the social comparisons that once shaped their self-worth. Instead, their deepest regrets center on lost life—neglecting their authentic selves while failing to see others as integral to who they are; sacrificing time to relentless goal-chasing while missing life’s most precious moments; and suppressing their true feelings for the sake of comfort, unknowingly blocking the depth of relationship that fosters genuine connection and flourishing.

In those final reflections, the illusion of separateness fades, revealing a truth that was always present: life was not an endless series of problems to be solved but a continuous flow of relationship. Every moment of genuine presence—every shared glance, every touch of the wind against the skin, every unguarded expression of excitement and love—was the very substance of existence. They were never truly alone, nor were they ever truly apart from the world they moved through.

To live fully is to awaken to this reality now, not in hindsight. It is to recognize that the breath we take is shared, that the love we give is an extension of the love we are, and that meaning is not something to be discovered or achieved but something to be lived—moment by moment, in deep, conscious relationship with all that is.

Everything else is bullshit.

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Stay passionate!