The Meaning of Life: A Late-Night Reflection

The other night I was lying in bed, trying to fall asleep, when I had a thought about the meaning of life.

We spend nearly our entire lives wishing to be someone other than ourselves…

We might dislike our hair, and instead wish that we had someone else’s.

We tend to envy over the economic status of others, even when we have plenty.

We may wish we had different parents, or were born somewhere else in the world.

We may wish to have a different eye colour, for our voice to sound higher or lower pitched, to be taller or shorter, or to be skinnier or more muscular.

We may wish to be an entirely different person in every way.

The goal post is always moving, and the grass always appears greener on the other side. We are always comparing and striving. It is human nature—at least as a product of our modern world.

But what if the meaning of life is simply to arrive at a place of peace with who we are, where we are, and what we have? Maybe the meaning of life is to learn to find joy and contentment in the simple things, to stop comparing ourselves to others, striving for bigger and better, and instead, to just appreciate the here and now?

What if the meaning of life is to simply have a human experience? That is, to simply experience being a human. This human—this soul in this body as it is—in the here and now, whatever that may look like?

Maybe the meaning of life is to be a human-being rather that a human-doing, human-striving, human-comparing, human-envying, or human-hustling.

What do you think the meaning of life is?