Projection Is Perception: This Is Either About a Pool or My Entire Life

It was early morning and my feet were in the mud.

Not metaphorically.

Like, actual wet Oklahoma earth, soft from days of rain, grounding me like a wire plugged into the planet.

I was standing in my backyard, staring at our above-ground pool we’ve now had a few years.

It’s weathered blistering summers and teenage cannonballs and an ongoing floatie war with no end in sight.

It's been great fun for the whole family.

But this time while looking at it, I saw something else.

I wondered about the integrity of its frame.

The thought floated in, calm but curious.

I scanned its sides. Checked the lining. Wondered how much longer it would hold.

And then it hit me.

If reality is just a mirror, maybe the thought wasn’t about the pool at all.

Maybe it was about me.

How It All Works

The word integrity didn’t come from my brain.

It came from the field.

That invisible ocean of thought-forms and frequencies we all swim in,

whether we know it or not.

I didn’t create the thought.

I caught it.

Like tuning into a radio station.

That word, integrity, just happened to be floating nearby.

And I happened to be open enough to grab it.

But the moment it entered my awareness, I shaped it.

I pointed it at something familiar.

I projected it onto the pool.

Is this still strong?

Is this still aligned?

Can it still hold what it’s meant to hold?

I thought I was talking about plastic and metal.

But was I actually asking about myself?

Am I still strong and aligned? Can I still hold what I'm meant to hold?

Here’s the thing: Maybe it was just about the pool.

Maybe I really was just wondering about it's strength and longevity.

But also…

Maybe that’s exactly how truth sneaks in.

Not through holy texts or ayahuasca ceremonies, but through a backyard pool at 7:13 AM.

Because the moment I thought “maybe I’m projecting,”

I became Aware.

Awake.

Curious.

And in that moment, I wasn’t just thinking, I was choosing.

We Do This All the Time

Archetypal energies and thoughts come in.

They’re not ours, but we claim them.

Grab hold of them straight from the field of infinite possibility.

Then, we assign them meaning based on what we’re looking at, what we’re afraid of,

what we’re ready to see.

We sculpt them into stories and pin them to whatever’s in front of us, our relationships, our to-do list, our aging pool.

But Thoughts Aren’t Yours, Until You Make Them So

The magic isn’t in whether the thought was true.

It’s in what you do with it.

That’s when the real reflection begins.

So, What Are You Grabbing Onto Today?

There’s a whole field of thoughts out there.

Some are tired and familiar:

“You’re not enough.”

“It’s too late.”

“Stay small."

"Stay safe.”

Others are waiting, pulsing:

“Integrity.”

“Sovereignty.”

“Devotion.”

“Expansion.”

What if today you reached for something different?

What if you let one of those frequencies land?

And then what if you asked:

Is this just about the pool,

or is it about my entire life?

Either way, you get to choose the story.

This morning, standing barefoot in the mud, coffee in hand, I chose to let

integrity shape my gaze.

Whether it was about the pool or not doesn't really matter.