Life is a desire, not a meaning.  I heard this in a clip on social media the other day and I really got to thinking about it because, at first, it sounded like a delicious spin on how we look at life.  The more I pulled it apart, I considered the second part stating that life is not a meaning.  While I agree that there isn’t a definition of what life is supposed to look like because life encompasses many things and looks different for many people, I do believe there is meaning to life.  I think when we try things and they don’t turn out how we want them to, or when we pick ourselves up only to fall again, we become disheartened and it’s easy to feel like there is no point to it.  There are times when we need to understand that we are meant to learn and other times we are meant to put that into action. So I would amend the original quote to say that the meaning of life is desire.  We have the impulse to create in so many ways, we are meant to create so we act on that impulse of desire to create. I believe that we cannot create without desire.  If we don’t have that passion for something, what can come of it?  We cannot approach creation with luke-warm feelings.

The beauty in life, all of the greatest works we see and appreciate came from passion.  The need to express these things inside, the need to give life to something only we can see/feel/understand, the joy of joining groups in song, theater, discussion all come from passion and desire to learn or create.  The act of life itself is creation.  Creation and desire are hard-wired into our being.  Looking at it now, it amazes me how good of a job we do suppressing that creativity in our lives.  We train our children to do things a certain way, to follow a certain pattern.  When they comply enough and become part of this homogenous group, we suddenly tell them it’s time to grow up and go make something of themselves when all this time we’ve punished or taken away any chance at creativity and they no longer know how to use it.  They need to get familiar with that side of themselves again, to learn it.  Now, I know this isn’t true for all people-some are just self-aware enough that they stand on their own two feet no matter what goes on around them.  The point is, we lose trust in our instincts and we lose our familiarity with passion/purpose/desire if we follow that path and we have to find it again.

I know I am happiest and most aligned when I step into creative flow and the ideas seem to pour out of me.  It doesn’t matter if I’m following a recipe, writing, coloring, painting, singing, cleaning/reorganizing, sharing information, telling stories, planning, teaching, coaching, exercising—any of those activities puts me in an amazing mood and it feels like life flows more smoothly.  That is the feeling, the desire. That is the meaning of life—to find that passion, to create, and to connect.  The more we tell ourselves to follow those instincts, the more we hear the voice telling us to do something else and to have fun with it, the more we listen and take action on those feelings, the closer we get to that aligned feeling.  It isn’t something to fear, it’s something to celebrate.  We just have to trust ourselves enough to follow through, to not be afraid of the feeling and to allow that desire to stoke up into something so big we have to bring it out.  Trust that instinct and stop hiding.  Become passionate about creation, follow your path, and bring forth everything that you are meant to share with the world.  It’s a gift.