What is the Meaning and Purpose to Life as we Age
Elder’s Creed # 1 There is Meaning and Purpose to Life
Does the meaning of life change as we age? I wonder if our purpose is embedded within our body and soul when we are born and then we spend a lifetime trying to figure out what that is. These are the questions that led me to the belief that no matter how old I am, there is meaning and purpose to life.
When I was born I did not think, nor did I worry, about the meaning of life. My body knew its purpose.
- To breathe.
- To grow.
- To love.
And when any of these calls or purposes were thwarted I would cry until I got air or food, or I was held and rocked.
My soul was simple in its purpose also. My mission was to trust that there was a great power that would care for me and keep me safe. And to teach others how to be gentle and forgiving. And to make people smile in this new world outside the womb that looked like it might have its problems. And I was content just ‘being’. I had no need to ‘know’ my purpose.
But here I am today, decades later trying to articulate my purpose for living and the meaning of life. I have written reams in my journal about my ‘mission’ and still, it eludes me in many ways.
The practice of meaning and purpose
I am no longer that trusting innocent newborn that lived with meaning and purpose—-content to do so without knowing. Now I practice what I believe is my meaning and purpose to life with great intention.
- Breathing. I meditate on my breath.
- Growing. I spend hours reading spiritual writings, I consider how my diet impacts both me and the earth. I journal about my failures and write about my revelations.
- Loving. I try to show love to every creature and practice forgiveness along the way.
I forget that life is about ‘being’ and I don’t have to ‘do’ anything to have purpose and meaning. I don’t have to accomplish things to be important. I am important. I was born important.
Breathing
So how am I complicating things? I have those same purposes today that I was born with, don’t I? Only now breathing, growing, and loving are called needs. I have spent my life providing for these needs.
Is meeting a bodily need a purpose for living? Of course. That is why we go to work and earn money and provide food and shelter.
How might we view breathing, not only as a need but as a purpose all by itself?
All of creation breathes. The plants breathe in carbon dioxide and breathe out oxygen.
The animals (including you and me) inhale oxygen and breathe out carbon dioxide.
Our purpose in creation is to be part of an enormous interdependent system of life, giving and receiving with every breath. That seems a simple enough purpose for living.
Growing
I chuckle when a new mom talks about how fast her child is growing. “Feed ‘em and they grow!”
I have read that every cell in our body replaces itself every seven years (or some such piece of data). I wish my cells weren’t replaced with so many used parts, but I didn’t design this model of growth.
When I look in the mirror and see white hair and wrinkles I am inclined to think my body is no longer growing. What might I see if I could see deeper than the wrinkles?
My inner life depends on what my soul has been feeding on. I have indulged in a lot of ‘food for thought’ in an attempt to have a healthy inner life but I observe that many if not all events in my life, from a walk in a pastoral setting, to cleaning up after a winter storm, provide a lot more of what my soul needs.
My soul grows with both joy and sorrow. That is its purpose as long as I am living. As long as I am alive I am filling my purpose.
Love
And the third meaning and purpose of life is Love. I was fortunate to have been born into love. Some babies are born and discarded in a dump or traded for drugs.
But somewhere in life, they meet love. It may be in a bowl of hot soup or a kind word from a teacher.
An interesting observation was made in a not scientific manner in which puppies were shown to little children, presumably a random selection. The response of nine out of ten children was to burst into tears. Tears I call ‘love poured out.’ Our most basic purpose is to love.
Some day (if I am lucky) I will be so old that I may not be able to attend to my own needs. I will not be able to meet anyone else’s either.
But if I become confused with dementia or confined to bed with a wasting disease I will not have lost my purpose. I will breathe. I will grow in ways visible and invisible even if my body is mostly spare parts, and I will love and receive love for this thing called life.
[Photos Credits from Unsplash by: leaves-by-tolga-ulkan; child’s-hand-by-rod-long;heart-by-fadi;breathing-by-egor-vikhrev]
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