extending and deepening

I think that each of us has a huge pre-life -
 a life that we have before we ever show up physically on the planet.
 And I think that hundreds of thousands of years of imagination and dreaming
 at the divine level went into the creation of the masterpiece that is each individuality.

And if you look at individuals - I mean, there is a different world hidden
 behind each human face. So each one of us carries a unique narrative, 
a unique memory. And different possibilities sleep in the clay of our hearts.
 So individuality is never repetitious or repeated.

So that must mean in the great circle of belonging that you have something
 special to do in the universe which can be done by no one else but you. 
If somebody else could do it, they’d be here and you wouldn't be here.

So I think that one of the fascinating things about identity
 is exactly this dialectic of destiny, which sets the outer frame of your life, 
and freedom which fills its inner form. And I think each of us in every moment
 of our experience are really extending and deepening that secret and subtle narrative.

~ John O'Donohue