A couple weeks ago I was misquoted by a local journalist in what could have been a very sensitive portrayal of a man's life and death. When the story was published I was angry the report was so cavalierly presented and very different than what I'd said during the interview. I re-read the article several times over and dove into my dictionary to clarify word meanings, all the while knowing I was gathering ammunition for a great war against misinterpretation and injustice. At best, I was surprised at the way my words had been rearranged; how sentences and quotes had been welded together, creating an entirely different tonal quality to the story I'd offered the day before.

After some of the shock wore off, I started to consider a possibility: the writer's interpretation of the information may have evolved very differently than my intentions. Although it didn't help my angst, I was able to move my attention away from micromanaging the ill-effects of the story and began to explore how something like this happens. This shift in perspective lead me to see my own responsibility in the situation.

When at first I was blaming the reporter for an amateur article and wanted to pursue a correction, later I was surrendering to a begrudging kind of gratitude. It was a master challenge to accept this because my initial reaction was one of immediate and incredible fear about the possibility of being misjudged by those who read the article. I dreamed (generally making things up) of fighting with anyone who might attack me, using most of my mind space that week to strategize my survival in the aftermath of this near death encounter.

Talk about a misinterpretation!! Suddenly the red flags were waving vehemently.

Instead of sending a letter to the editor or charging the doors of the newspaper office in search of the bad guy, which I wanted to do every other second, I finally opened up to the ways that this situation is a reflection of me alone. I altered course to take a higher road telling myself, "don't believe everything you think," and the key question I asked myself was this: "what is hidden from view here?"

Since I didn't really know the answer, I had to trust one would appear. While waiting I wandered around a bit wondering. "Who can say what is true in any given interaction between two or more sources? If common perception --what we see--means we both see the same big redwood tree; and interpretation-- how we see it--relates to what we believe and experience about the tree, is it any surprise that we are often polarized? What lies at the source of this disparity?"

A simple answer came to me. It's a projector.

After realizing there was a big projector online here, I was first able see how the reporter could project onto me the desire for a specific type of story and how it was possible to misinterpret my statements to accommodate this reality. I also remembered similar past situations in my own life and began to experience new and present circumstances in which I was, yet again, misinterpreted! Because it recurred in other aspects of my life, albeit less glaringly, I had to go further down the root tunnel to see where this particular scenario originated, and it was more complicated than a simple direct reflection.

This is especially funny because not only were my direst emotions driven by feeling misinterpreted, my solution was to actively misinterpret other people's possible responses to how I was represented by the media. No one ever said a thing to me! The price is high to keep these old movies in stock and perpetually project them onto the world screen. My recent version of this dynamic consciously preoccupied almost two weeks of my life…and that's not to mention it's tenure in my subconscious and stations in between.

Although very painful, I am about to become much freer because I recognized myself in those outer reflections. This case was a bit complex; I could have chosen continued blame, sustaining a victim vibration which holds the emotional drama in place. After all, there was a truly righteous aspect to the whole story and I might have easily remained on the wrong battlefield. On top of that, even if everyone was secretly judging me afterward, it all still comes from a projection inside of me and from an entirely different set of past experiences. I am truly grateful this writer agreed to play a role in this movie to support my growth!

Ultimately, do you want to be right or self-empowered and co-creative?

Everything we experience can be linked to a projection from inside of us. What we believe are reflections from the outside world are really projections from inside of us onto the world. And even though they originate from within, they are not always directly nor easily interpreted. The story we perceive may only be a preface of what's ready for interpretation as part of our growth. First we must be willing to actually see it, second we must know its source, and then we must interpret it correctly.

It's much easier to do from the seat of your wisdom, a place of neutrality and clarity--the center of your head or mid-brain!