The answer: living a meaningful life

How bold! How brazen! To dare to say that the answer to our collective woes is as simple as choosing to lead a meaningful life.

At one end of a continuum we have the individual and the individual experience. At the other end of the continuum we have the collective and the collective experience. These are not separate but flow into and from each other. There is no beginning and there is no end, and to think it so is an illusion.

If we take both ends of the continuum and curve them around so that they meet, we have what we call 'reality'.

How do we define what's 'meaningful' at the individual end of the continuum? Whatever we create there will become our collective 'reality'. To date, our experience of 'meaningful' has been defined by that collective experience; has been defined by and imposed by the 'collective good' on the individual's expression - and so, we have what we have today. I am suggesting that when we make room for 'meaningful' to be defined by the individual - rather than have the collective imprint of 'meaningful' on the individual long before we are able to choose for ourselves - the world changes. And not a nanosecond sooner.

Not to choose when we're small and nestled (legitimately) into the power of those much larger who surround us, is an intelligent reponse. To continue to live like that long after our chains can no longer hold us, is to be a victim by choice. Do we even notice? Has it become so habituated that we think it's 'reality'? To best way to keep someone silent is to teach them to detest the sound of their own voice.

Over the years, I've learned that there are very obvious and specific clues to let us know that we are NOT living a meaningful life as an individual.

Disease - of body, mind and spirit - is a clue. How many bodies and minds are ravaged by the dogma of intergenerational 'because I say so' and are sacrificed on the alter of habit and socialization? Just how much chronic, debilitating dis-ease do we need to have before we begin to notice that there is a patter unfolding?

Rage/aggression/violence is a clue. How much rage/aggression/violence is perpetrated to appease the unchallenged, mindless demands of some dogma or other? Dogma of religion. Dogma of the gang. Dogma of parenting. Dogma insists that it not be looked at, considered or thought through. To do so would be its demise.

Poverty...ignorance...and all that comes with it. A world view of scarcity comes from the individual (i.e. person, family, state, country, etc.) believing that the larger collective intends it harm or will in some way cause it to be diminished. And yet, how many individuals are not willing to share some of what they have/are/experience with another individual? Where does that sense of Self go?

What brings meaning to my life is living a meaningful life. I can tell I'm doing that when I wake up in the morning and am thrilled to be me! I wake up and am eager to step into my life - warts and all. I welcome and look forward to the tough conversations - with myself and others - that I know will allow me to discover more of who I am. And I trust that from one breath to the next, from one word to the next, my body will tell me exactly what I need to know. When I pay attention, my life means something to me other than just another day in the salt mines.

Living a meaningful life. Most of us don't even know how to explore what that might be! We're not encouraged to think about it, ponder it, wonder about it, explore it, challenge ourselves about it. That would be the antithesis to the desired outcome of: just do what you're told.

Living a meaningful life. Being healthy and well. Trusting the power of the innocence of trusting! Rolling around in today like a dog in a dead fish (sorry about that one! I just can't get that happy dog experience out of my head!), embracing all that it brings, and looking forward to tomorrow as the explosion of potential that it brings.

Living a meaningful life. Saying what's true for me, just because it is. Asking for what I want. Saying no because I don't want to. Letting go even when someone else tells me I should hang on because inside, I know that's the right thing to do...the right thing to do FOR ME.

Living a meaningful life. Being excited about something! Taking a risk! Stepping into it not knowing where it will go but trusting my desire to engage.

When I choose to pay attention to what moves inside me; when I become willing to BE my own compass; and when I become more willing and able to engage from one moment to the next, my individual life expands. When you do it, and the next person does it, and the next, and the next....the world we share expands.

There is no other way.

Breathing is good....