Meaningfulness is also guided by what we value most, regardless of how we come to have or hold those values. Some people devote their lives to a faith or religion, but this means different things to different people. What is held as a belief or focus for devotion can include things like music, study, philosophy, science, curiosity, sport, meditation, or any number of other interests other than just a god/goddess, doctrine, or faith.
In pockets of any society around the world there are individuals devoting their lives to very specific things that are meaningful to them, such as their children, homes, or careers. Some people will spend an entire life devoted to just one skill, such as martial arts, automotive repair, hair styling, nursing, animal rescue, prayer, and so on. And what each of us finds meaningful can and will change depending on where we are in life at any given moment. Where we might have once devoted all of our time and energy to raising children, completing college studies, or even just perfecting a skateboarding move, can all change as life morphs into something else because what we find meaningful changes.
In addition, though it's fine to look around and see what seems to be meaningful to others, it would be wrong to say that someone else should ever clarify for you what you should devote your life to because finding what is meaningful in life is a personal and constantly changing journey. An incredible amount of human suffering in the form of anxiety and depression is caused by pressuring others to conform to what is only meaningful to others, rather than themselves. Insisting that others find the same things meaningful that we find meaningful is to stifle the creativity and freedom of choice that each human being should have the right to own for themselves.
So know this, that if anyone ever tells you that the meaning of life is "x", stop and ask yourself if that is your own truth. When another tells you that we are here for the purpose of "x", stop and ask yourself if that is a belief you have come to on your own. When another tries to convince you that you will find meaning in life if you just do, believe, or act as they say, then stop and ask yourself how you will ever find your own way under such circumstances.
You can find a link to my previous blog entry about finding meaning after the pandemic here.
"The meaning of life is whatever you ascribe it to be" ~Joseph Campbell
Thanks to Bonnie Moreland for the great photo, https://creativecommons.org/publicdomain/mark/1.0/
