Not everything you see is true and not everything you feel is failure.

My dear reader,

today we return to our conversation, a deep and personal dialogue between just you and me. You, the one person reading my thoughts, and I, the one sharing them with you. Between us flows an energy that connects and brings together two worlds, yours and mine.

Today’s theme touches on our desires, expectations, and timing. Perhaps it won’t be only about longing, but also about where in life we find strength during moments when everything seems to collapse, or when we are stuck in the long wait for something that never seems to arrive.

I will also add a philosophical and spiritual element, what happens when a person prays and asks God for help, or at least for answers to their questions? I once heard a quote: “If you speak to God, it's fine, but if God starts speaking back, something's wrong.” And yet, I believe He still finds a way to speak to us. I hope my opening doesn’t sound overly dramatic or religious, because today’s theme is much broader

Let’s take a closer look, each of us experiences both rise and fall in life. And in those moments of falling, we’re reminded that there may be something greater than ourselves, or at least, we hope so, because it gives us a sense of faith and grounding.

Why did I choose this topic?

Because I’m almost certain that today’s world is a difficult one. It is politically and economically unstable, but perhaps most concerning is that the value structure of our existence has shifted. Our era has rewritten the values we once lived by and created something new, often misunderstood, but still very real.

I’m talking about things like the expansion of gender into dozens of categories, the restructuring of our religious frameworks, and the destabilization of what once anchored us, the idea of home, which for many has reversed from majority to minority, or even dissolved. And that’s not even mentioning war, food insecurity, and the uncertainty of our future. Whether we are rich or poor, this era touches us all without exception.

We ourselves are changing, trying to find once again something that gives life meaning, and that is not an easy task. We may not live in a medieval world of filth and famine, but we are still fighting a battle for survival that drains our time and energy.

It’s nothing new, we have so many coaches and mentors who guide us on how to cope, and yet the mind is often unable to anchor what it fully understands. We struggle to maintain focus, to remember even the simplest things that seem to be encoded directly into our DNA. You’ve probably heard the phrase: “I pray to God and ask to win the lottery,” and God replies: “But at least buy the ticket.” Or the old saying: “The darkest place is under the lamp.” I could go on, or dive deeper – for example, into the words of spiritual teachers who say: “Your soul has entered deep cleansing. That sad period wasn’t weakness, it was courage. The courage to walk through the pain you’ve been carrying, perhaps even from a distant past.”

And then what?

Nothing happens, we listen, we understand but the real question is: do we actually realize what we understand?

Personally, I don’t think so. Our brain remains foggy, some say it’s because of sugar, others blame the flood of information, others still point to constant advertising and the list goes on.

But if we look far back into history, people didn’t have televisions or smartphones, nor did they consume so much sugar, and yet, they still couldn’t shine, they couldn’t fully experience the moment of realization. That moment usually came only when something deeply shook them. And then, they carried it with them and would say: “That was the moment I truly realized something.”

Let’s dive into such moments, where even I, as a storyteller, can say: “I experienced it, and I understood.”

Eleven years ago, something happened to me that was so powerful, so awe-inspiring, that I still feel deep gratitude for it. It led me into a profound realization about how answers appear in our world, the very answers we seek. I truly believe that some of you, if you simply pause and slow your thinking for a moment, will begin to see the answer you’ve been searching for. That answer is always around us, it keeps coming, again and again, we just don’t always know how to connect the dots and truly realize it.

At that time, I was going through a very difficult life situation. I won’t describe the details, I don’t like unnecessary dramatization, I’ll simply say this: I had one question on my mind,“What should I do now?” In my heart, I prayed, asking for help while at the same time searching for guidance on how to act. I’m not the type of person who dwells for long on why something happened, in crisis, I focus more on how to solve things. But this time, it wasn’t just about solving.

It was autumn. A rainy, cold day. I was standing in a bank on a round town square, across from a Catholic church, I believe it was St. Thaddeus. Outside the church stood a middle-aged woman, quietly asking for money in a paper cup. She wasn’t dirty, drunk, or aggressive, she was clean, someone who perhaps had simply been dealt a bad hand in life.

When I walked out of the bank, I had quite a few small bills on me, just enough to buy dinner for a family. Still, I decided to give them to her. And then came the moment of truth.

The woman didn’t wait for me. Just as I made the decision to go to her and give her the money, she turned away and began to walk off. She had only just reached the edge of the square, but I could no longer stop her.

That moment pierced through me to the bone, I had made the choice to give, she had wished and prayed to receive, and yet she left.

It was an astonishing realization, a small shock about how this world truly works: the answer and the gift were both prepared, but the meeting never happened.

I can only tell you this: it was a truly overwhelming realization and, at the same time, a clear answer. Perhaps that’s why it is written that faith moves mountains, that woman, when she was asking, should have believed it would be given to her. Maybe she just needed to wait a little longer.

Or maybe God wanted to show me that I, too, need to learn to wait, because my request is on its way. Without that moment of shock, I never would have understood that yes, everything has its time, and that help always comes, but only when it’s meant to.

The realization was harsh, painful, and yet so powerful, at that moment, it simply wasn’t meant to be mine. Sad? Yes. But that’s why I ask you: what would you take from this? That we turn away and stop believing? That we ask for something, yet secretly don’t believe it will come? Or that sometimes timing simply doesn’t align with our wishes? For me, it was a deep shake that stayed with me for life.

Since then, whenever I ask for something, pray, or hope, I know: if it’s meant to be mine, it will come. And if the time hasn’t come yet, it simply won’t, I won’t see it, won’t understand it, won’t recognize it.

Maybe this is what devotion truly means. Devotion to what I long for, and loyalty to the belief that it will come when the time is right. I don’t know how else to say it, only that it moved me deeply and changed me.

A philosophical moment that raises more questions than answers, and yet, within it lies a definitive truth. Life holds far more colors and changing layers than we’re capable of seeing, and yet they are real.

I was there. And so was she. I knew. She didn’t.

Could her belief – that all people are bad and no one would give her anything, be true? Certainly not. And yet, we were both living in two different versions of the truth, hers and mine.

That’s why I always say: everything that happens around you is not a fact. It’s just a perspective, a way of seeing, hearing, or interpreting what’s in front of you. But that doesn’t make it real.

The only universal truth we all share is death, that one day we will die. Everything else is illusion. And not just any illusion, a personal one, woven from our thoughts, memories, and beliefs.

The realization that we live in our own world of illusions, and not in a world of facts, is staggering. And it changes everything.

And to confirm that insight, another life story came to me. A seemingly simple moment, yet full of symbolic meaning.

As you know, in big cities during rush hour, traffic lights stay red for what feels like forever. I don’t know why, maybe it's done on purpose to make us burn more fuel, or to make owning a car feel frustrating.

Anyway, I was sitting at a long red light, and a car was stopped in front of me. I was in an SUV, and the car ahead was lower, so I could clearly see what the driver was doing. He kept trying to fix something. Then he got out and started poking at his windshield wipers. When he manually pushed them, they didn’t move.

He returned to the driver’s seat, and the moment he turned his back to them, the wipers suddenly moved. It happened twice.

It was incredible. He was convinced the wipers were broken, completely dead. But the real issue must have been something else entirely.

That moment made me smile, but it also struck something deep inside me. It reminded me: not everything we see is what it seems. And what we think is true might not be.

For him, it was proof the wipers were broken. For me, it was a different kind of truth.

Once again, two “realities,” two “truths.”

These two events taught me a lot. I stopped asking why something is happening and started asking only how to move forward. That is the power of awareness. When you reach that awareness, you stop drowning in endless questions and begin looking for direction. It’s overwhelming and far-reaching. My stories may offer you different answers, but for me, they brought one undeniable truth, they changed me, and they changed my life.

Since then, it has become difficult for me to listen to friends who talk about their relationships over and over again. Not because they want advice, but because they need a moment of sympathy or release. I used to give them guidance, but by the tenth round of the same story, I realized: it’s pointless. We are simply different people. And I started getting bored.

Now, I go for coffee with my friends just once a season, not because I need it, but because I feel like it. It no longer gives me anything.

Why am I telling you this? Because that moment of awareness made me better.

How exactly did it make me better? It freed up space in my mind from the constant thoughts of what if, why, and maybe. And once that mental space cleared inner peace arrived. I became calmer, more focused, and more balanced. And that’s it, when awareness comes, freedom follows. Because it brings the answer to the question we’ve been asking all along.

I don’t believe that absolute truth, as we imagine it, actually exists. What we have is only understanding and awareness of where we are, who we are, where we’re going, what we desire, and what we actually hold in our hands. Nothing more.

And the only real question is: How do I make it happen the way I want it to be?

And if it is meant to be, it will happen. If not, we must look for new pathways, how to go on and where to go next.

I believe that my stories may help you grasp something we all already know deep inside, we just don’t always realize it.

We must become more flexible, softer, and calmer, because that is the ideal position, whether we are at the starting line or already deep on our path.

In the end, we all long for the same thing: to find our own version of happiness. And that means peace.

But peace doesn’t mean being without emotions, emotions will always be there. Peace means that nothing essential is tormenting us anymore.

Let me close with one more story, this time not mine, but a philosophical one. I cannot say for sure if it really happened, but the meaning behind it is powerful.

They created a maze with several pathways, placing cheese at the end of each one. Then, they released rats and a human. Both found the cheese and got used to their path. Then, the cheese was removed. The rats went back once, twice, a third time, and then they began looking for cheese on different paths.

But the human kept walking the same path, again and again, even though nothing was there anymore.

And that, right there, is the difference.

What you take from that realization I leave to you.

Why did I share all of this? Simply to support you in this complex and challenging time, and to remind you that not everything you see, and I don’t mean in the media, but within yourself, in your inner reality, is a fact.

Even if you feel bad, lost, unsure, or stuck in something dark and heavy… please believe me – it’s not over. This is not the end of your story.

There is always something ahead. There is always a way forward.

And there is always a reason to believe in yourself.

It’s not that you’re not good enough, it’s just that your timing hasn’t arrived yet.

But it will.

Wishing you a beautiful Sunday. I look forward to reading your thoughts. Yours, Natalie 🌹

#mindset #selfawareness #innerpeace #lifechanging #philosophy #timing #motivation #inspiration #selfgrowth #resilience #trustyourjourney