“The heart of all creativity is the awakening and flowering of individuality. The mystery and magic of being as individual is to live life in response to the deep call within, the call to become who we were dreamed to be. In primal terms, it is the call to discover and realize the divine blueprint in the soul.
…To be an individual is to ‘stand out’ from the group or the system and such separation always entails vulnerability. Deep in our nature there is a desire to belong, to fit in. Our bodies are fashioned from the clay and it is strange for the body to be a separate object able to move around in space, no longer umbilically linked to the earth. Perhaps this desire to fit in is the draw of ancient gravity, the desire of the separated clay to be one with the earth again. This gravity of belonging is also evident in the animal world. Animals love to take shelter in each other and dwell together within the embrace of the herd.”
Taken from Chapter 8 of Divine Beauty by John O Donohue.