Meaning of Life

One of the old wive's tales you get to hear from old folks especially when you volunteer at an old folks' home like I do is that to know the age that you will die naturally by observing how old before your grandparents expired (of natural causes). For example, my grandfather passed away (peacefully) shortly after crossing age 70 and thus by now, I have crossed my mid-way mark in my journey of life (so I guess that means I'm going through a mid-life crisis?!). Some of my friends have grandparents that live beyond 90 and thus would have to plan for a longer journey, ha! Yet the truth is life is more fragile than we know it. Just today, my colleague was sharing about how her cousin who was in her mid-30s was diagnosed with lung cancer, passed away suddenly leaving behind 3 kids to her distraught husband, although she didn't smoke nor had any history of poor health (or at least not to the knowledge of my colleague). To put in a morbid blunt manner, there are so many ways to die or one could end up dead, be it via some freak accident or illness or God knows what. Where there is life, there will be death. While many of us can acknowledge this fact, how many of us actually realise the brevity of it all?

Being rather inquisitive since young, I have long pondered about the meaning of life - but that doesn't mean I have a definite answer; just like you who are reading now, we're probably still figuring it out as we journey in this mortal life. Yet here I am sharing what I know - any believer in God or a higher being will typically accept that life is a gift. I often wonder as many people get caught up to be "successful" in life, what does "being successful in life" mean? So does that mean you can possibly be a "failure" in life? Even more curious is who is the judge of it all if that is the case? If we acknowledge the first paragraph of this blog entry, then life in itself is uncertain, so despite all that we can plan, perhaps there could some divine will or destiny already laid out for us? Not to be fatalistic but these are all questions that probably crossed our mind at some point in time as we ponder the meaning of our mortal existence. So do we go on pondering deeper and deeper like what some of the ancient Greek philosophers did - will we eventualy get a definite answer? Probably at some point, we might just accept that life is indeed a gift and it is what we make of it - probably more meaningful to focus on making the best of it (whilst it lasts!); just like a common saying goes, "life is not a destination but a journey". As I make my own journey in life, I have discovered that perhaps everyone's meaning in life could be different; I feel I have been giving meaning to my own existence in my own way through the things I do (and choose not to do) - maybe that principle also applies to everyone else? Who knows?