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Not too long ago, a reader sent me an e-mail expressing grief and frustration over the terminal illness of her sister-in-law's
seven year old son. Duchenne Muscular Dystrophy had taken one son and now had the last son in its grips.
"What is the meaning of life?" and "Why are we here?" she asked.
"I know this answer," I thought. Five years ago, I'm not sure I had a clue, but my experience since then has blessed me with what I believe to be some core truths. Our purpose in life is simple, yet overwhelmingly important - it is to learn, to love and to grow. Learning. As we go through life, we are continuously given challenges, or lessons. Some lessons are painful and some are joyful but all are worthwhile. If we don't learn them, they're repeated until we do, and the lessons we refuse to learn have the potential to cause progressively greater problems in our life. The creative genius Michelangelo had a motto at 80 of simply "I am still learning." We're still here because we still have lessons to learn. Loving. Love is the core of all life. It is what makes friendships blossom, marriages thrive, and life worth living. The more love we give, the more love we have - a joyously endless cycle. This isn't to say that giving love to everyone is a simple thing. Ah, no. It's easy to love the so-called good people in our lives, but the ones that cause us frustration and troubles need our love as much as we need to give it to them. We shouldn't praise or encourage unloving behavior, but neither should we ignore the divine in each person we encounter. These are fellow spirits like us, traveling along their own path, struggling with their own lessons. Also, an important lesson each of us must learn is to love ourselves. As the T-shirt saying goes "God don't make no junk!" By recognizing the miracles and unlimited potential that God has placed within us, we are better able to recognize it in others. Growing. Wisdom is the act of putting knowledge into action. It's one thing to learn a lesson, but it's something completely different to put that knowledge to use in day-to-day life. To grow, we need to continuously strive to put our knowledge into action and spread love to each of our fellow spirits. - - - How do we learn, love and grow? For each of us, the experience is different. God has placed talents and passions within each of us and by pursuing these we enrich each others' lives while enriching our own, all the while traveling our own path toward God. We are eternal beings. As has been often repeated, we aren't human beings with spiritual experiences but spiritual beings in a human experience. When this body dies, we live on, taking with us all the wisdom and love we gained from the experience. Can this knowledge stop grief? Can it prevent the pain of loss? No. Even as I replied to her questions, I felt woefully inadequate. Feelings must be felt. "Stuffing" them is the easiest way to long-term problems. The best we can hope to gain from each experience God has placed on our path is to learn, to love, and to grow. That's what life is about. |
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Because I have a little wisdom, I choose to walk the great path of Tao and fear nothing
except to stray from it. - Lao Tzu |
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