We are so very well-equipped when it comes to adding color to life.

One of the more interesting things is our inclination to find reasons.

We are meaning-making, meaning-seeking entities.

We want to understand things.

We want to find our vocation, our divine goal.

We want to be able to predict and control events.

We want to know why stuff happens so we can either be content with it or hate it.

So much of what we go through is caused by this specific tendency to figure stuff out and look behind the scenes.

It’s SO important and deeply ingrained, that the idea of a life without meaning sounds incredibly sad and empty and horrible.

But ‘meaning’ doesn’t have to be a thing.

Or a goal.

Or something we have to fulfill.

It can be a feeling, a feeling that drives enthusiasm and curiosity, with or without specific wishes for a specific outcome.

Like most feelings or things we ‘just’ know, it’s really hard to describe this.

What comes fairly close would be something like ‘living life just for the sake of living’, but that doesn’t really cover it.

In my 54 years as Marnix I’ve spent many, many hours reflecting on the meaning of life.

It has felt meaningless and useless.

And it has also felt extremely invigorating and exciting, with or without a well-defined idea of what the meaning would be.

It’s still there, I can almost smell it, but it seems to have new appearances and expressions.

It’s there, mostly as a sense of being in the right place.

It’s there when fantasies about the future arise and I see myself traveling the world, coaching the shit out of amazing people.

I can’t describe what it stands for, or what it entails, but this abstract feeling of a more general, more universal meaning, feels absolutely wonderful.

It doesn’t matter if it’s true, let alone if it’s The Truth.

That kind of meaning just seems way too ambitious.

I’m more than content with just the feeling.

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(Photo by @nate_dumlao, for Unsplash)