Having audaciously declared my free agency in an impossible universe, I am not so arrogant to think that I can navigate the mystery all alone…
Surely there are many things true and useful to learn from billions of experienced souls, past and present.
And so, impassioned by the sincere hope to make sense of my confusing world I spent decades seeking knowledge and wisdom from every source I could find–spanning the sacred and secular, conservative and liberal, masculine and feminine, ancient and modern, eastern and western, mainstream and fringe, and everything in between and beyond.
I devoured the library, surveyed the world’s religions, absorbed the sciences hard and soft, and ventured to foreign lands.
Along the way, I made three empowering discoveries:
First, most humans are profoundly anxious and perplexed about almost everything.
Second, there is no consensus on why we are here.
And third, nobody else, no matter how learned, experienced, clever, or wise, can tell me the meaning of my life.
That is something I have to work out for myself.
I checked out some things on your website. I absolutely love it. Continue to try to be you, and don’t let others define who you really are. Seek truth, justice, and compassion over that of religion, hate, and theocratic individuals and dictators.
Thanks a million for the resonance and words of encouragement, Kim. It’s heartening to know that freethinkers like you are out there. I just subbed to your blog and am about to start browsing. All the best.
Amen. I wish more people would realize this.
Heartened by the resonance, Christopher. Cheers!
Anxious and perplexed—that describes me.
Thank you for sharing that, Georgia. For what it’s worth, I wake up every day in existential anguish, never knowing for sure if I’m doing the right thing. Yet we press on, doing the best we know how given our unique endowment of blessings and burdens.
Your last sentence expresses the human condition beautifully.
Thanks & Peace.
You are very wise, Frank! Keeping being YOU! Our thoughts matter, our experiences are important and have meaning for each of us individually, and how we live in the world and treat others, matter! Your life is your own, and it will always have meaning, and doesn’t need to be defined by anyone but you!
Thanks for the most kind words of appreciation and encouragement, Anita. Yes indeed, and matters especially in the way we treat others. All the best.
Wise observations and conclusions, Frank!
Your resonance always means a lot, Jill.
Frank, I’ve also discovered that the meaning of my life has changed over the years. Nothing is permanent. For better or worse, we are forever evolving.
Thanks for the resonance and for sharing your experience, Rosaliene. Indeed. Such is life. And thanks, as always, for your efforts to move that evolution in a positive direction.
🙂 <3
If there was consensus in anything, the world would look differently.
Yes, nobody can tell us what our purpose is, we have to find that out for ourselves.
Somebody once wrote that nobody is an island, but in my opinion that is exactly what we are. Even if we are in a good relationship with somebody, the other cannot take over responsibility for our actions – it is our’s and only our’s -, and the last road we walk alone. I think, to realize that it is so, seems to me to be growing up.
I don’t mean this in a negative way at all. It is the realization that here in this material world nothing lasts forever, it can’t, it is not in its nature. But then, I am certain that we are not only matter, but also spirit, and the spiritual world is something completely different.
I don’t read your comment as negative in the least, Stella. It’s simply the way things are.
I, for one, would never abdicate such responsibility or reject the challenge of growing up. Such is the very stuff that invites us all–given our unique endowment of blessings and burdens–to live a life worth living. Thanks & Peace.
That third revelation is the most important, by far.
Indeed, Larry. Thanks for adding your comment. I wish I knew this before spending the most vital years of my life digging thousands of dry wells.
You have, once again, packed a world (and a life) into a nutshell. When you figure out the meaning of your life, please let me know. Seriously, Frank. My own shifts with the passage of time.
Thanks, as always for your generous and thoughtful comments, Gerald. To your point, I wake up every day in existential anguish, never knowing for sure if I’m do the right thing. Thanks & Peace.