“What does one do when they’re feeling lost?”

I looked down at my phone at this text, and read it again, slowly…carefully.

“What does one do when they’re feeling lost?” 

Short; sweet; open ended when just reading the words;… but I knew from where they sprang. They came from the heart of a friend, and they came fully loaded with all of her life experiences and most recent challenges.She had chosen a path of sorts, and upon traveling it, has become lost. She is perhaps not where she expected to be, and upon looking around herself, now has to ask “why am I here,” and “what do I do?”   

In all honestly, I do not consider her so much “lost” as not quite knowing where she heads. I would also argue that she emulates millions of us that feel the same way from time to time.

Our never ending pursuit of happiness and meaning in our lives are worthy goals, but how lost we each get in trying to find them is the stuff that so many great stories are made of. Cinderella finding true love despite such hardship, or Mark the Matchstick Boy lifting himself up from the pages of Horatio Alger’s books, inspire us and give hope and speak to endings and dreams that can happen.

I do not dismiss the possibilities of such dreams coming true, but they are more rare than not, to my way of thinking. A “Knight in Shining Armor” is just as apt to fall off his horse and crush you as he is to sweep you off your feet and make all the rest of your life “happily ever after.” 

Perhaps in my mind, “happiness” and “meaning” are not goals in and of themselves. They are outputs of a process, rewards for doing something well; treats tossed to us by our cosmic makers for “getting it right” and learning.

Should our goal really be to fall totally and magically in love and live forever in its glow, or should it be to experience that love totally and magically as a result of something else?Is a life spent hopelessly in love a life well spent?

Is happiness so simple that it feeds on itself, supplied energy from the ether around us, and never needing new reasons to be?

Is meaning handed us by another being or company, with goals etched in stone and year-end reviews inspiring us? Do we then re-group and establish new goals and make New Year’s pledges for a better effort, spinning and spinning year after countless year? 

I looked back down to the simple question texted me out of the darkness of night, and realized that the simplest of questions are often the ones requiring the most effort to answer. I have no strong answers that cover everybody. 

But I DO know that in MY life, seeking love is not near as easy as happening upon it, or simply by act of grace, giving it. We can do that: we can just give it unconditionally. I have seen how life changing it can be when we do just that.

I do know that "meaning" in MY life seems to come out of thoughtful introspection where I consider where I am and the kind of person I would like to be. When I die, what words would I like said of me...what rememberances in the minds of others?

I do know that happiness for me is an output of trying to get the above two right. Note that I did not say "get the above two right," but rather "trying to get to top two right." I think happiness is in the effort. 

At this stage of my life, happiness and meaning and love have converged. 

I believe with all of my heart and mind thatwe are on Earth to lift others up. In so doing, we experience happiness, we experience love, and we have value and meaning added to our lives.

We are on Earth for each other.

Really!

It may be that in a month or a year, I will think differently…but for now….this is what I will tell my friend.

It is my profound hope that she will read my responce, and that someday soon I will see a text from her...midnight again is fine....where she shares that she is happy and content.