A group member writes:
I remember: Early in life I adopted specific postures, gestures and ways of speaking to express and interpret my world. These came about through mimicry and necessity, shaped by my nature and predispositions. Mostly I am so inside of these habits that I cannot see how I appear from the outside. They are me and I am them. There is no separation. It is all part of my identity. Different roles that I have taken on have perhaps altered these slightly to suit societal expectations but I would say that my identity was determined at a very young age.
I watch my new born granddaughter look out from eyes which cannot see as we see, where nothing is familiar, nothing is recognizable except the warmth and compassion that she is held. Yet her being is overwhelmingly present. Watching her over the last several months discover herself, the possibility of movement, the slow and steady occupation of her body, fingers, toes, arms, legs and torso. Her struggle with gravity. And then taking that body out into the world. Where everything is a wonder. Somewhere in this journey, surprisingly quickly, a personality takes shape. Underlying this personality is the being who first arrived, naked and without the imprint of all of us who claim her as our own.
Does that being continue to live in us throughout our life? Can we return to our being?
It seems to me that if I could describe the essence of being it would be all perception and sensation. There would be a newness to everything, a wonder. Of course we cannot eliminate our experience, but perhaps it could cease to be a blindfold to what is here now.
