A Bird from Another Continent

I am like a bird from another continent, sitting in an aviary.  The day is coming when I fly off, but who is it now in my ear who hears my voice? Who says words with my mouth? Who looks out with my eyes? What is the Soul? I can't stop asking?
Rumi from Whoever Brought Me Here (https://www.poemhunter.com/poem/whoever-brought-me-here-2/comments/)

I have been asking the question for many, many years: Who am I? I feel , so often, like a bird from another continent.  I feel out of place especially now as my thinking is changing so radically. I know that I am in this world but not of it.  If that makes sense to anyone, let me know. lol

The bigger question then arises: Who is this "I" that hears, speaks and sees through "me".  Me, I am learning,  is this idea I have of me, the body others see and the one I see when I look in the mirror.  It is the personality others know ( or assume they know).  It is my role, my label, my status, what I own or don't own and what I do.  This "me", the  mind has created is the aviary in which I am trapped.  It was  built with  walls of personal and collective thought, ideas and beliefs. The aviary is this continent...this perception of my world.  I try to fit in here but know that I am a stranger in a foreign land.  This aviary is not my home.  In fact, it is a prison of sorts. I am not from here. Part of me wishes for freedom. I long for freedom.  I long for home.

Yet I also know that "someone" took me here and "someone" will bring me home. Who is this "someone"? It is the being within me that will carry me to freedom.  It is the same being who hears through these ears, speaks through this mouth and sees through these eyes that will take me home...that is home. That is the soul Rumi questions.

Hmmm!  All we need to do is reach out to that Self, become familiar with that Self and we will be taken home.

I have linked this little meditation video before because I find it so helpful in its simplicity.  Kim Eng (2019), "Who Am I?" Guided Meditation.  https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Qk5dlmylOZk

 All is well!