Trying on for size

I was watching my children play and it got me thinking.  It's interesting how when children play they try on different personae. "I am a doctor" or "I am a Mommy" they announce sometimes to others and sometimes even to themselves.  They narrate as they play, now I am doing this or that, now I am going to...  It's remarkable that as they play and they identify with the role they are currently playing, there is an awareness that all those roles are roles they are not their core identity.  Maybe it's because they are still small and they haven't formed a concrete picture of who they are so they continue to try out different possibilities as they gleefully try on different identities for size.  Unfortunately some of that is lost as we grow up and start to identify more and more with a particular role.  Often people describe themselves by their profession," I am an artist, a baker, a teacher, a homemaker".  But all of these are what we do not what we are.  We are so much more really.  Human beings are born with certain notions that are preprogrammed into them and many of these if one is conscious of them can teach us a lot about who we really are and who we are meant to be.