What Defines Your Existance?

There comes a point in everyone's life when you have to take a step back and ask yourself "Who Am I". In our material society we are accustomed to attaching our identity to things we have or people we know in order to give ourselves a sense of self worth. What happens when those things go away? Do you become someone else? Do you lose who you were and feel lost? Some of us define ourselves by what kind of job we do (I'm a lawyer, a principal, a CEO, a model), by the prestige of the places we work, by who we know, by what we can acquire, by our activities and so on and so forth. When things unexpectedly change, as life always does, will that change make you question your worth? What happens if your face becomes disfigured and you can no longer book modeling gigs, who will you become? What happens if after years of building a great work persona, for whatever reason you can no longer work there - will that change how you think of yourself? Will it change how you judged others? Can you see past these fleeting definitions that we assign to ourselves and to others? Do you really see people in your life for who they are. Can you see your friends for what they really have to offer? Love, companionship, support or compassion. Or can you only see how knowing them can benefit you or enhance your outwardly appearance? At one time or another we may have given up something real for something we thought would make us "better". But being the best, or better than, or above all is just an illusion a society like ours creates just to foster more competition. A competition from which hate, jealousy, arrogance, loneliness and anger are born. Can you accept that all humans are frail and changing - including you. Can you accept that the people that WANT to be in your life are the ones you overlook the most. Maybe they didn't live up to your ideal, or look or act the way you wanted. Maybe they didnt have enough or maybe you just wanted more from someone else. They didnt make you feel about yourself the way you want to feel. There is not a person, a job, an activity that can define who you are. When life changes like it always does - who will be left standing in your shoes? Who will be standing next to you?