In my life there is the meaning I make and the meaning I find.

When I set out to do something meaningful, that will either fall into the category of giving away money, or my time an energy, or perhaps stuff I have that might be more meaningful or important to someone else other than me.

My biggest lesson in that was when a girl friend gave away her best coat. She gave a gorgeous wool coat, that was like a cape, to a homeless shelter. It was her favorite coat, but she felt it would be more important to someone who was in dire straits.

For awhile I volunteered with hospice. I thought vainly that I could make a difference in the lives of families who were losing someone they loved. It didn’t work out that way. After a year I gave it up.

Although I have chosen a path of intentionality, where the work I do is meant to be meaningful, I find that the small things are the things that matter. Giving up the parking space I was going to take to someone else. Stopping on a busy road for someone to make a left turn. Taking the time to connect with others instead of making my agenda tops on my list. This is what gives my life texture and a sense of abundance.

Many people around me are finding it in the potential for happiness in the future. Of course, I’m an 18-year-old highschooler, about to graduate untied from others and free-floating off to adulthood, so I’m around a lot of people thinking that way.

We have our dreams laid out, and small things to get us through and make it have meaning _{although sometimes, standing blindfolded at the edge of a cliff and imagining a mattress down below, even though there might not be, gets old.}

That’s a general assessment. Concretely, I like organizing, and perfecting, meeting people and animals, and experiencing as a method to growing and using my time…with wild-card moments of doing pointlessly strange things. 43T organizes my free-spirit (is that what you’d call it?). While I’m not attached to anyone (except through soreness from past relationships), I love dearly my menagerie of animals and my friends and family.
_{And, done.}

I’m in an odd place today. I’m not sure I always look for meaning in the right places. It’s been a bad day today, a really bad day. My emotions have been tossed about in a washing machine today and the journey has been exhausting, but enlightening. It’s interesting that I should see this question today as the upshot of my emotional journey was that I came to the conclusion that I think I worry about the wrong things. Perhaps meaningfulness comes from the simpler things and I think at times I am too focussed on things I can neither change, or that are not actually that important in the grand scheme of things. Perhaps taking the moment to appreciate something small and being thankful. Not expecting to change the world singlehandedly. These obvious things I should try and remember (and it’s all too easy to forget them!)

I don’t know if I’ve really answered this question, although there is a little more clarity in my mind over the day’s issues!

Wish I had an answer

I help people through my work & I get a lot of appreciation for it. I also feel really good about the help I have given and that it will make a difference.

I value giving love and spending time with my partner.

I enjoy all of the natural beauty around me (many trees, flowers, wind, ocean)

I get a lot of joy out of trying to be healthy… and also, having fun with food and making new things. Right now I’m making cold press coffee (less acidic) and drinking lots of greeeeens!

I go through periods where I’m like “what am I doing? How did I even get here?”

I think, why am I not living somewhere warmer (most warm places are overpopulated, and many of them are politcially unstatble, there are also many more dangerous poisonous things).

I ended up a librarian, and it’s not a bad job. I get to run programs for kids, which is very rewarding. I didn’t really choose to be a librarian, it just sort of happened after failing to be a lot of other things.

Having a husband and lots of animals is meaningflul.

Being a responsible person who follows my own set of personal values is meaningful. Other people may lie, cheat, and not put anything back into the world, but I choose every day to live with integrity, and to care for myself and my animals and my property. I choose kindness towards others, and tolerance as much as possible. I rarely take the easy way out of things.

I always try to think for myself, to not be lazy and just accept someone else’s word, to learn something new, to do a good job at work, etc.

I appreciate beauty, art, humor, and find meaning in sharing ideas with people.

There are a great many ways. I’m my wife’s husband, and my daughters’ dad. I have other family I’m there for, and I have friends and lovers who I can be there for and return those feelings for.

I try to give to my community and my world at least as much as I receive from them. I try to see kinship between myself and everyone else, even if they aren’t much like me in an immediately obvious way.

I have a relationship with the divine which is complex and changing. There is a concept of “humility” in my religious learning which involves knowing and understanding one’s place in the world and the universe, and not placing yourself higher or lower; I try to practice that.

I’m sure there are some other ways, but that’s a good start.