Daryl Wood's Blog

Yesterday I heard a grief counsellor say that maybe it’s too much to try and imagine or plan a meaningful life. Maybe the best we can do when we are grieving is to plan a meaningful month, or week, or day. And sometimes, for me, that’s planning a meaningful moment. Moment by moment. It occurs to me that these meaningful moments, days and weeks are the essence of a meaningful life. Collectively, they may ultimately define what a meaningful life is for me and for those who move slowly through the process of healing and growth.

I wonder if this is good advice for everyone. Perhaps a reminder to live fully in the moment because it’s really all we have. I recently had a quick casual conversation with a local legendary doctor who has just passed his 85th birthday. We were talking about changes in our lives when he snapped his fingers and said “And things can change just like that”. I wanted to stand quietly right there in the energy of the moment and let that sink in.

For all of us, ‘just like that’, happens in subtle ways in our lives and mostly goes unnoticed. Except when we can’t miss it. When it is something big and loud. And then what? Well, then our values and beliefs, our character, our intention, our impulses leap forward to direct us to the next steps. And when we are solid, or at least very well informed, in how we handle life’s ups and downs we may discover that what we do next creates, or in some cases diminishes, a meaningful life. And who wants to be standing on the sidelines of their life wondering what happened?

If we allow ourselves the time and space to understand what a meaningful life means to us, not what others say but really ourselves, then we have somewhere to go when we need direction. A friend recently shared with me that ‘you can’t see your reflection in running water, only still’. And still water is the container where we can see what a meaningful life means for us.

Sometimes people think it is a luxury to be able to ponder such thoughts and yes, for many, their lives are consumed with survival. I get that and I’m humbled by the privilege of being able to set aside time for introspection. But that’s what I have right now and it could all change ‘just like that’. So in the meantime, those of us who have the gift of this opportunity can build the foundation of a meaningful life by knowing for sure what that means to each of us, in our own words, in our own way.

May you see with absolute clarity in the days ahead.