Who are you?

​The world constantly pressures us to change.

Most of it comes from the world's desire or our own desire or a self-destructive combination of both to look more like some random corner of the world.

Because we aren't assigned a corner. We land unwittingly in the corners we live in. But those corners do become the corners shouting the loudest about who we are supposed to be.

What we are supposed to look like.

Until the corner becomes too loud.

And we explode.

We suddenly realize we can no longer live up to the demands of the corner. And in our broken bits we begin to wonder, maybe for the very first time in our lives: who am I?

Who am I is a drastically different question than who am I supposed to be.

The world has reversed the order of that discovery on us; much to the world's benefit. Because when we ask - who am I supposed to be - the world will gladly sell us things to help us look like their answer.

Until we have bought it all. And with all of the things of the world in our hands that the world has assured us would make us whole, we feel as broken as we've ever felt.

And we retreat. Inside. Where the world grows quiet and dark.

But it is in here where the beauty can happen. As unwittingly as we landed in the corners of the world we find ourselves suddenly inside the corners of us.

Someone recently reminded me that the beauty of spring requires the darkness of winter.

Rich Roll says, "Transformation demands a commitment to going inward, stripping away the layers of our crafted personalities, and deconstructing the narratives we tell ourselves about who we are and what we’re capable of."

Inside, in the darkness, we begin to strip away the personalities we have crafted to meet the demands of the world outside. We begin to deafen ourselves to the voices crying out from our corners.

Until slowly but surely we begin to emerge.

New.

Looking nothing like we are supposed to look and everything like who we are.

We no longer have a corner; we have an us.

An us emerging, together, from winter into spring. No demands, just sweet acceptance.

With nothing to sell here we are left with nothing but curiosity. We are left with nothing but one of the most beautiful questions ever asked.

Who are you?