John O'Donohue, speaking of the Celts says, "Nature was not matter, rather it was a luminous and numinous presence that had depth, possibility and beauty."
Being a fan of John O'Donohue's writings, I have read this quote a few times, but this morning it really jumped out at me. I found myself substituting the word life in place of the word nature, because I believe the thought is the same.
Life has a luminous (full of or shedding light, especially in darkness) and numinous (having a strong spiritual quality, indicating the presence of the divine.) presence that has depth, possibility and beauty.
My sense is that life, in and of itself, is meaningless, until WE give it meaning. It is up to us to discover the luminous and the numinous presence that is already there.
For some, life lacks meaning and they are, as of yet, unaware of its possibilities. They live day to day without an awareness of the beauty and majesty of the miracle of life. We each are presented with the challenge of assigning meaning to our individual lives and to life in general. We create the depth and heights in life by opening to possibility.
We can close life down and close it in, we can make it large and full of love and kindness or we can make it small, caged in by prejudice and bias. It is up to each of us to take what is possible and live fully.
For me, the meaning of life is love and all of its ramifications. Because of this, I see the goodness and the divinity in humanity. In my eyes, we inherently are good and benevolent souls.
Because this is what life means to me, and I live each day from that premise, I notice how goodness, light and love keep showing up in my life. I know there is a whole lot of ugliness, violence and hate being spewed out, filling the airwaves and being dumped on the planet in a big way. But, I also notice how most people who cross my path are kind and speak words of benevolence and goodness.
Have you consciously assigned meaning to your life? Recently someone said to me that she was depressed and feeling like she was living day by day with no purpose, other than get up, go to work, come home, eat and go to bed and the next day do it all over again. Hearing these words, I could understand why she was depressed. It seemed, and sounded to me, that her life lacked meaning. After hearing her express her sorrow and sadness about life, I began to talk to her about meaning and purpose. She was surprised to hear that SHE could assign meaning to her life, explore possibilities and open a space to create depth and beauty that could fill her with joy and peace. Speaking with her reminded me how easy it is to live with limited vision and settle for blahness and suffering,
I know what it feels like to live without meaning in life. It is a sad, empty space to occupy. I have been there and I have lived with depression, sadness and hopelessness. What a happy day it was when I began to comprehend that it was up to me to find meaning and purpose. I saw that I had the power and the ability to create life as I longed for it to be. Doing this was not a one time job. In fact, quite the opposite, it has been a moment by moment, day by day, month by month and year by year experience of continually choosing to do the excavation necessary to uncover the diamonds hidden beneath the darkness. I found my joy hidden under the sorrow and sadness and my peace hidden behind the panic and anxiety. These meaningful gifts of joy and peace were there all along, but they were not within view. Once I committed to, and put my foot on the path of healing, the possibilities became evident. As I continued to tune into my inner being and opened my eyes and ears to hear what my soul had to say, I soon found my life filled with meaning and purpose.
We are all here for a purpose and it is up to each of us to open to possibilities and find the meaning of life. .Inner peace and deep joy are there for all of us. Look within. Your soul has the answer to what you long for. Your soul already knows.
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