(Reprints)
(Writer’s Note: I started my Blog on WordPress in February of 2026. Now, as I have started also posting on Substack, let me take this opportunity to reintroduce myself to people who really don’t know who I am, or what I am about. So, here is another of my “Reprints”, essays/articles I wrote, but you may have missed! Think of this as reruns of a beloved TV show that you never got a chance to watch the first time. Enjoy, and get inspired.)
From March 24,2026:
Part Three: Myths.
I started this Series writing about the Obstacles to these Approaches to Life I previously posted about. (Go to the Archives Page, and the links are all there. https://align-with-love.com/archive/) These are my thoughts, and I do not pretend this is the only way to look at life, but I sense deeply these are true and helpful. I believe this “Unholy” Trinity of Ego, Expectations, and Myths trip us up in life. They prevent us from being Open, Light and Aligned in the Universe.
We get “stuck” in these, and we cause ourselves so much turmoil. Each element is not “bad”, but can bring heartache if we are unaware of them, and don’t do some work to look at them. I am not a therapist, pastor, priest, or anything remotely “clinical”, so these are my thoughts. These writings should not replace those who are better trained to help you work through whatever issues you may face. But these ideas can certainly help with “framing” situations, and bring you clarity as to how you are reacting to whatever you find yourself dealing with.
As I said in my Ego post, “Aligning with Love is to be a more loving Presence in the world. “ Your Ego, Expectations, and Myths can prevent you from being that. I defined Ego as your wants and preferences in any given situation. I pointed out how our egos can want very mundane things, like a food choice, or deadly serious things, like not wanting to get shot. I went on to make the point that we must be attentive to the world around us, caring for the poor and less fortunate, if we have means. We must get out of our own malformed egos!
In Part 2, Expectations, I wrote about how expectations are our anticipations in any given situation, and our beliefs that something will happen. I noted this is not reality, even if the expectations are very realistic.
Our expectations are our egos forecasting the future.
I wrote that my default is to get angry when my expectations are not met. I do not let my Ego and Expectations be Aligned with Love. We will have trouble in Life, as Jesus told us we would, and we should not be surprised when things go awry. Expectations block our openness and lightness with the universe, if we hold to them too tightly. I finished with imploring us to expect that the Universe is ultimately good, that Love fills it, and that Aligning with that Love is a better way.
On to Part 3: Myths. I originally used to use the term “False Beliefs” for Myths, but I realized we would get lost in what made a belief “false”, so I have updated the term to Myths, and I would also like to add the word Narratives.
What is a myth? One definition is “a usually traditional story of ostensibly historical events that serves to unfold part of the worldview of a people or explain a practice, belief, or natural phenomenon.” Or, “an unfounded or false notion“. https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/myth We know of the Greek myths, we know of Creation myths, and even if we believe in them, we know there is an element to them that is telling a story. The myth is narrating for us how we got here, or why the world is the way it is. I would like to submit, though, that you might have myths operating in your own life, right now!
It shows up in how we talk to ourselves. I’m not pretty. I’m not smart. This never works out. It flows right back into our expectations. This won’t work out. I will have to pay more in taxes (again). I will stay single, or my spouse will never change! We have told ourselves, even if we are people of faith, a different Narrative. We say we believe in God, or the teachings of Christ. We say we have a spiritual set of beliefs or practices, but in the real moments of our day-to-day lives, we live according to a Myth: a Myth we were told, and believed.
Someone else Narrated our lives for us, and we Aligned with that.
We may have been too young to know any better! I will not start blasting well intentioned parents and leadership figures, who may have transmitted very messed up messages to us as children or young adults. I also will not belittle the trauma and hurts we may have endured, both emotional and physical, by such figures. Our parents may have been very broken people, who were woefully unprepared to “shepherd our hearts”. Being a parent myself now, I see how easy it is to “blow it” in the little moments of life. I already wrote about my tendency to overreact to things–and I see my son do the same. I narrated for him a Myth: “When life doesn’t go as planned, and it always does-let’s freak out.” I did not model calm handling of Flow-Shift in the Universe to him. I can change, though, and so can he.
I had a Myth inside a Myth in that sentence: “When life doesn’t go as planned,” ( as I planned)–see it? I, Eric, had a plan. What I wanted, and what I wanted to happen. (Ego and Expectations).
One of my Myths is that the Universe should always go the way I want–and why shouldn’t it??
No wonder I am getting so upset. The Universe is not matching up to my beliefs, and my narratives at all! It’s not fair! We all do this–we don’t say it like this, but I think this is some of what is happening in our minds and hearts. We hear and experience things as children that we just “build on” as we grow up. We never realize that the foundation, the Myths and Narratives, may have been faulty from the start! Then we are adults, married with kids, working wherever, and things feel “off”. We’re not “happy”, or we are stuck in dysfunctional patterns. We don’t know why, and we don’t know what to do. There is a metaphorical song playing, over and over, and we can’t get it out of our heads, a song we can’t stop “dancing” to.
In Christianity, there is the notion of the Holy Trinity of Father, Son and Holy Spirit in a delightful “Dance” that is quite beautiful, and hard to comprehend, and I will surely get into it at some point. But our Egos, Expectations, and Myths are also dancing in our minds and hearts, an “Unholy” Trinity, as I put it. You and I are often dancing along, and we didn’t even “pick the record”, or digital file!
What do we do? Recognize it. Stop. Breathe. Slow down. Start asking yourself: Who told me this? Did your parents tell you that you were “no good”? Were you condemned to “hell” if you didn’t do this or that? I recall my Dad telling a young 20ish me, before he died, that “You’ll never make any money at that job…,” discouraging me from working in banking. I felt “less than”. I felt I had not lived up to his myths, and expectations: I should be making “more” money. I should have a more “prestigious” job that made him look good, and that made our family look good. To who exactly did we need to look good to? And who cares?
Years later, as my Dad’s life took a very different turn due to his own failure to Align with Love well, I found out I was making some three times what he made in his own line of work! This is not to say I was rich, (I am not), or he was poor, or I was “better” than him. But he gave me his myth, and his narrative. He meant well–and wanted me to be “successful”. But I’ve been in banking for 28 years, have done well, and am liked and respected by my peers. (I hope.) I am successful. I am “doing well”, as America defines it. I am married, have a son, have a house, and now, I am an honest-to-goodness writer. It’s for another blog post the tales of my Dad, some bad, some good, and the profound way he ministered to me after he died. I believe my Dad is now in a much Better Narrative, a deeply True One.
To start concluding: Myths and Narratives are those “deep stories” we were told in our youth. We believed them, but they may not have ever been true. I am not trying to say “religious myths” are all bad, and I intend no offense using that term. But when we coerce people to engage in religious practices to appease God, so he does not smite us, or refuse to love us, that is misusing those myths. It’s what Richard Rohr calls “Primitive Religion”. It’s based on fear and punishment, not love and attraction to a Higher Calling.
I attended a charismatic, pentecostal junior high school, and I recall once a teacher there insisting “God was mad at us”, as we did not raise our hands in the weekly worship service. Good grief! I was 13, and more concerned about looking “cool” than worshipping God. My Reformed Church background did not worship like that, so I was not comfortable with it. Grown-up now, I see that many of the teachers in that school had “conversion experiences”, and had come from a non-Christian background, who were now on “fire for Jesus”. They wanted us to not make the mistakes they made-but telling me God was “mad” at me was not the way to do it! I turned away from God, partly due to moments like that, for a season. I wanted very much to be “good” at whatever authority figure was telling me that God expected, but I couldn’t do it, so I just unplugged from the whole faith for a few years. (No disrespect to those folks-they truly meant well.)
It took years to realize God loved me no matter what I was doing or not doing! I do “raise my hands” now in worship, but not to make God “happy”, but because I want to; I want to say thank you for all I believe He did (and does) in my life!
From myths like those, expectations flow, and our egos too. We think God will bless us, if we raise our hands, or tithe, or attend every church service, on and on. But when the child gets deathly ill, or the marriage implodes, we get angry as we “followed the commandments”. We forgot Jesus refreshed and simplified those 10 Commandments:
37 Jesus replied: “‘Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind.’[a] 38 This is the first and greatest commandment.39 And the second is like it: ‘Love your neighbor as yourself.’[b] 40 All the Law and the Prophets hang on these two commandments.” (Matthew 22:37-40, NIV)
There is no promise all will be well by doing this! But if we do this, Life is better. It may not feel like it all the time, but I believe it is. It’s better in your heart. It’s better for your heart. Aligning with Love is the way. We may want to argue, but it doesn’t seem like hate, and all the myths, expectations, and ego that feed it, are working all that well in the world! (Be honest.)
I will get to how to work with this “Unholy” Trinity more, as I believe there are some practical things we can do and be that will help. Suffice it to say for now: watch yourself. Not watch yourself to see how you “mess up”, but just observe. What are the myths here? What’s the myths being repeated in the Media? What narratives are being told, good or bad? What expectations flow from those myths, personally or for the world? Where is my ego creating unhealthy expectations? You’ll know that one by how you act: are you sarcastic, cranky, nasty, and the like when it’s not going your way? Now look deeper: Who told you who you were? Who told you how to act or not act? I’m not saying to go out and do anything “bad” or mean–just notice it.
See how you can bring Openness, Lightness, and Alignment to your life happenings and interactions.
Our unreviewed Myths, Expectations, and Egos will cause us trouble
if we do not start to shift our Approaches!
Next week, I will be writing about how I practice with all of this. I intend after each “Series” to show how I work with these, or how I mess up with them. I didn’t get the idea until the end of this second series, but I want to try to make all these “Align with Love” ideas practical, and also show where I have to grow too.
Thank you for reading. Thank you for taking time to wade through all of this. I know it gets long and involved-but I believe your efforts to play along will help you, and everybody else.
Be Open. Be Light. Watch yourself.
-Eric, the Wordsmith
PB58-R16
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