This week, the Wrekin – that beautiful distinctive hill of Shropshire photographed here – was crowned by cloud and mist. It was something beautiful but indistinct.
Just as life sometimes is so confusing, so disorientating, such a muddle.
The end of the day can be an opportunity to discover the meaning of the day. Was it in a beautiful sight? Was it in a precious relationship? Was it in a powerful moment of experience? Was it a day without anything special, just the usual, wonderful gift of life?
Isn’t life good when we have had a meaningful day?
Where did you begin your life journey? This doesn’t just mean “Where were you born” – it means where did you start to discover meaning in your life? This poem called “Futility” by Wilfred Owen raises some profound questions…
Futility
Move him into the sun—
Gently its touch awoke him once,
At home, whispering of fields half-sown.
Always it woke him, even in France,
Until this morning and this snow.
If anything might rouse him now
The kind old sun will know.
Think how it wakes the seeds—
Woke once the clays of a cold star.
Are limbs, so dear-achieved, are sides
Full-nerved, still warm, too hard to stir?
Was it for this the clay grew tall?
—O what made fatuous sunbeams toil
To break earth’s sleep at all?
Wilfred Owen lived locally to me, in Shrewsbury, and it’s a sad poem, influenced by his terrible experiences of fighting in the First World War. It raises questions about the purpose and meaning of life for soldiers trying to survive in unbearable conditions.
But if we are to have Lif4Gd…then one of things we can explore in our life journey is purpose and meaning:
The beginning of life
Is not at first cry
.
But when the soul
Begins to know why
.
And moves in faith
That the purpose
.
And mission
Are beyond the present
.
In a future unseen
And a destiny.
Some Questions to Ponder
Are there writers that mean a lot to you? Maybe writers that live locally to you, or writers that have strongly influenced your life journey?
How do you explore your life’s purpose and meaning?
You might like to leave a comment if you’ve found this interesting.
Think about a seed growing into a plant. Or the journey of a human being from conception to birth to childhood to adulthood.
To live is to grow.
Meaning
Because meaning is related to valuing. Every person alive feels their meaning as they feel valued by others, or they feel valued by God.
Life also has meaning as we are affected emotionally.
To live is to discover more and more meaning. The meaning of my life. The meaning of the lives of others. The meaning of existence and the universe. The meaning of God.
Joy
Because to live is to experience happiness and joy as well as sadness and pain.
Joy is created by an infinite variety of causes. Other people, a pleasurable sensation, music, a moment of beauty. Joy brings growth and meaning to life.
To live is to experience joy.
Perspective
Because perspective is changeable. At one moment, the smallest thing is a mountain and a monster; later we laugh and realise how we had the wrong perspective.
Perspective is like faith. In who and what do we believe and trust, and how do these primordial commitments shape our understanding, our decisions, our existence?
Lif4Gd is to choose certain perspectives to return to in order to grow, experience joy and find meaning in life.
Lif4Gd 