Who Defines You ?

I wrote this last year on my other blog "Daily Wanderer" and I just needed to read it today, see it again. Feel it deep within me. It flows along nicely with my thoughts today and melts in with the music I am hearing and skips along with me on the adventures of the day.

Today I was thinking about the way people act around others. Often times people let others define who they are simply by allowing themselves to act, say, do the things in reaction to what they think people want them to behave. There are also times when people sort of fall into the crowd mentality, following what others tell them they should feel or just get caught up in the momentum of the general consensus, without ever seeking out the reality of the situation. Its a bit like looking at something with another persons eye balls in your head. Few people are strong enough to stand on their own all the time and be fully themselves. We are at times like sheep, following one another over the cliff, caught up in the motion of the moment. We are also good at fitting folks into the slots we make for them, not leaving much wiggle room for individuality or flexibility. Its not easy to be the one that paints your own lifescape and choose for yourself what colors you use or what mood you want to portray, or even how much of our true selves we wish to lay bare. I also want to choose the people that come into my life without being influenced by what other folks think and say about the choices made. I think, yes, I really do believe that we should strive harder to be more independent in our thinking and let our own hearts, minds and experience define who we are and how we see others.