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JUNE 19, 2009: 

Are you Looking for the meaning of life or a Meaningful life?

As I looked out at the Tuscan countryside with but an occasional car driving past, not even a street sign or visible way to distinguish the drive to our farmhouse I was surrounded by waves of grass blowing in the wind.  It was here I contemplated what am I doing with my life?  Am I looking for the meaning of life or a MEANINGFUL LIFE?  As a spiritual seeker I learned long ago that seeking is different than finding answers, it is the freedom to ask more meaningful questions.  Quite frankly just asking the questions can be more than enough. 

Victor Frankl who wrote of his time in a concentration camp says, “Freedom is not something which can be given to you by someone else.  It is something that you have inside of you, a way you choose to be.”  So we can all choose a MEANINGFUL life where we declutter and determine our spiritual well-being.  This requires us to be bold and courageous.

Why?  Because meaningful lives are messy.  Getting all the answers is a way to live life propholactically where we are hyper careful not to make any mistakes, erroneously thinking that if we only “get things right” “live our lives right” that it will all be ok.  But who wants an ok life?  A meaningful life is MORE!  It is a philosophy of living life BIG AND BRIGHT without limitations. Now of course we can't control everything that happens around us or the choices that others make but this need not limit us. You have in a sense a "magic wand' that can transmute even the greatest challenge into an opportunity for greatness.

In Italy it was all the unknown – I knew no one on my trip or the area we were visiting, however as we were all strangers we were free to be open, no facades, no pretending.  And as a result the experience allowed for abundant meaningful exchanges.  I’m tired of pretending.  I am tired of letting courage collapse by being too careful too analytical, aren’t you?  It’s time we stop looking for all the answers or pretend we have all the answers and instead just start living more.

In the book Geography of Bliss Eric Weiner writes, “Most of the time I keep my imagination on a leash.” Are you the same way?  Do you keep yourself so tightly wound up and leashed in that you’re literally drying out from the inside out.  Wouldn’t your life be more meaningful if you let out your imagination again? 

So join me in aspiring to choose a more meaningful life rich with adventurous questions!  Don’t just stand at the shoreline of life looking out but afraid to get messy, just dive in and get involved with making a meaningful life.  Big love to each of you! Silvia