Find Your 'Ness'

I am blessed to be surrounded by birdsong almost all the time.
It wakes me up in the morning, keeps me company throughout the day and reminds me it's time to stop in the evening!
Of course, the birds are just doing what comes naturally and have no idea that they play such an important role in my life.
I watched 'Me, You and Dupree last night (well, I fell asleep in the middle of it, but got the gist!) In the final scene, Dupree is talking about finding your 'ness' and that really is what life if all about. Once you find your 'ness' - the essence of who you are - the rest is easy!
Birds, trees, dogs, cats, insects.......they don't have to find their 'ness' because they already have it. A bird is a bird, a tree is a tree etc etc. They are each happy in their birdness, treeness, dogness.....
But us complex creatures have lost the sense of ourselves somewhere along the way. Babies and young children still have it. Their baby-ness and child-ness is what makes them so endearing.
I think the cause of many of the ills of society - alcoholism, depression, drug abuse, suicide, self-harm... - can be attributed to the fact that people are feeling a deep need to feed their souls and don't know how to go about it. They are yearning for their 'ness' and are searching in all the wrong places.
So, how do you rediscover the essence of who you are? How do you reconnect with your 'ness' so that you can follow your true path?
Go back to basics.
It's inside you and the way to find it is to stop looking and allow the stillness to envelop you. It takes practice and for most of us it's a life long journey. But the journey within is really the only journey worth taking.
It leads to your 'ness', your soul, the essence of who you really are and that's when the journey really begins! n