Who am I?
We ask ourselves this question every day. Even if we do not articulate these words in our own minds, our decisions and our actions inevitably bring us back to this question: Who am I?
Am I becoming more myself? Were the hopes and dreams I had as a child the real me? When this dreary work, this mind-numbing business which I find myself in today is completed and put away, will that person who I will be at that point be the real me?
This question can drive us, consume us, especially in our youth, when defining who we are seems most vitally important while it is at its most impossible.
The answer is that you are who you are. You are the thing asking the question and the consciousness trying to answer it. You are the body and mind, the feeling and logic, the sense and thoughts, the questioner and the seeker. You are who you are, and you were a different person yesterday then you are today, and will be a different person again tomorrow.
It is difficult, but we must let go of the notion that who we are is some stable thing which we can rely on. The question we may really be asking is not, “who am I?”, but rather “who will I be?”, which is a very relevant and critical question that is much harder to answer then who you are right now. After all, it is the person whom you will be who will receive the effects of your decisions today. Predicting what will make that person happy is a continual challenge, and it is only through self-listening, and striving for balance in all our actions, that we can begin to know that future person.
We must find what we can do today which not only can lead to balance in our lives now but may also help that future person achieve balance as well.
