Before the short pause of the last days, I wrote a post about becoming.
And somehow, that word got stuck in my mind. Usually, when I write about something is a sort of release. I release stuff taking up space in my mind by putting it into written words. This way, I create space for new things to come in, knowing that I'm not losing anything.
This time, however, the idea of becoming kept spinning in my head.
I have this feeling that life is an endless journey of becoming.
So, becoming is an essential part of being. I would even dare to say that they are the same thing.
If you're alive, you are becoming.
If you're not becoming, you are not "being" either.
And I wondered, in my long afternoons staring at the ceiling, if I should stop asking myself "who I am" and, instead, inquire "who I am becoming".
I know for sure that, consciously or unconsciously, I am becoming someone. So, who?
The question, "who am I?" is powerful, but it usually points me toward my story. How did I get here? What have I learned? And so on. It's like taking a picture of myself, inside and outside, from where I am now. It's static.
If I ask, "who am I becoming?" instead, I'm forced to look forward, to observe my movement and direction.
Maybe that's it.
Knowing and accepting that we are always becoming. It removes all the pressure to be perfect. To have everything figured out.
"Human beings are works in progress that mistakenly think they're finished. The person you are right now is as transient, as fleeting and as temporary as all the people you've ever been. The one constant in our life is change."
— from Dan Gilbert’s TED talk "The psychology of your future self".