WHO AM I . . . REALLY? Are my dreams just flowers that bloom in my mind reaching for the sun, craving to be watered but doomed to die? Is there more to me than the work I do, raising the children I have, and being a great spouse and friend? What about the book I’m writing, picture I’m painting, and garden I work so hard to make beautiful? What about all the mistakes I’ve made? The wrong lover. The wrong job. The wrong friends.

What about the less life-altering mistakes, like the wrong vacation spot or purchasing the wrong dress or suit? Are these the things that define me? My mistakes? Am I just a creation of the choices I make?

Who am I, anyway? Do I need to know?

Those are the kind of questions many of us ask ourselves, and they’re heavy questions. Let’s lighten up. It’s not as serious as we think. We are all doing exactly what we are meant to be doing in this moment; however, we can do better by seeing more.

In 2005, I was in Sedona, Arizona, and had the opportunity to attend a workshop given by Dannion Brinkley, author of Saved by the Light. Dannion was pronounced clinically dead on two different occasions. Once he was electrocuted while working on a home project. The other time he died on the operating table. He died, went to the “other side,” and came back—twice—bearing clues for all of us to see greater purpose in our lives. He shared that we chose to come here and were chosen to come here. He told us to find out why and get on with it.

We are not here randomly. We have been created, and we have chosen to come to Earth. We aren’t just who we see in the mirror. We’re not just a body with a mind and emotions, a mortal being that perishes. And we certainly aren’t just the problems we have. We are purposeful creations in a beautiful scenario called life. We are visible expressions of the Spirit of God, which is immortal and imperishable. We are the balloon, and God is the air that gives it form. We are so much more than we can imagine, and we can find that truth of ourselves by going past our concepts and looking deeper.

We get so caught up in our human sensations and stories that we think we are defined by them. We have lost the truth of who we are because we have been trained to believe it is our world and our story within it. We have been influenced by the people and events in our lives and the culture in which we live. These influences blind us from a bigger understanding of who we are and what life is about. With our feet firmly cemented to the ground, our lives are always seen at eye level. We are stuck in a tunnel view rather than one that embraces the bigger perspective.

Once, while I was standing in the shade of a tree to watch my son’s soccer game, a picture came into my mind and I received a message. The picture was of a circle, and I was standing on the edge of it. The message was, Mary, you are standing outside of life. I was shown and told that standing alone outside of the circle meant I was standing outside of God, which kept me separate from God. It was clear that I believed God was in one place and I was in another. It was as though God were begging me to step inside.

Step inside and live in me. The real life is in here, Mary. Don’t stay on the outside. You got lost in the illusion of yourself. Let me absorb you back into me. I am the love. I am the life. I am the joy and the peace. Those words are the call for every one of us.

Let me absorb you is the call to come home.