Happy New Year!
I have been thinking about purpose in life.
While recovering from being one of the “chosen” who spend the holidays sniffling and out of sorts in the midst of all the merriment, I had time to reflect in and on the “no-mans land” between sickness and robust health.
I noted I had only enough energy to watch a classy soap on TV, or read a little or potter around doing minor chores. Gradually a sense of pointlessness descended on me and I felt really old and useless.
Those activities are not particularly unusual for many people, particularly those retired, and maybe the feelings add to a sense of being sidelined for not contributing to society in the usual way as workers.
A number of my long-time friends, who I recently visited, are retired yet they conduct their lives with great energy, each it seems has a centering point. One is involved in a childhood literacy project and social justice, another is custodian of her late husband’s artwork , marketing and selling his as well as her own; a third is working on simplifying her life while tending to the land she and her husband occupy. A retired engineer friend is passionately writing his book on technical engineering matters. I also remembered that my retired father formed a model-making guild to show off the amazing mechanical models he and his friends designed and built.
Feeling stronger I returned to my daily living with slowly increasing zest, thinking about my own centering point and asking myself these questions:
What does living in a meaningful way mean? How does that manifest? What gives your life purpose and meaning?
How do you answer those questions?
More to come on meaningful living….