“Doing something with all your heart gives things meaning”
The above is a re-worded quote from a nice book: The Dog Who Followed the Moon by James Norbury.
I think there is truth in that meaning can arise from what we put into something. Especially if it is with all your heart. What does it mean to do something “with all your heart?”
I guess it means you put your entire self into what you are doing.
Here is another quote from Viktor Frankl’s “Man’s Search for Meaning.” The author was a researcher who survived the Nazi concentration camps. In this book he writes about these experiences, and how it impacted his awareness of how people find meaning:
“Another time we were at work in a trench. The dawn was grey around us; grey was the sky above; grey the snow in the pale light of dawn; grey the rags in which my fellow prisoners were clad, and grey their faces. I was again conversing silently with my wife, or perhaps I was struggling to find the reason for my sufferings, my slow dying. In a last violent protest against the hopelessness of imminent death, I sensed my spirit piercing through the enveloping gloom. I felt it transcend that hopeless, meaningless world, and from somewhere I heard a victorious “Yes” in answer to my question of the existence of an ultimate purpose. At that moment a light was lit in a distant farmhouse, which stood on the horizon as if painted there, in the midst of the miserable grey of a dawning morning in Bavaria. ‘Et lux in tenebris lucet’–and the light shineth in the darkness. For hours I stood hacking at the icy ground. The guard passed by, insulting me, and once again I communed with my beloved. More and more I felt that she was present, that she was with me; I had the feeling that I was able to touch her, able to stretch out my hand and grasp hers. The feeling was very strong: she was there. Then, at that very moment, a bird flew down silently and perched just in front of me, on the heap of soil which I had dug up from the ditch, and looked steadily at me.”
This quote struck me. I find it beautiful in many ways.
Right now, regardless of what we think about the bird in this excerpt, it is obvious it was profoundly meaningful for the author, for the bird to land in front of him and look steadily at him. I gather that this meant there was connection there: connection between him and his wife (who was deceased at this time), and connection with this bird. And I think the meaningfulness stems from and has something to do with this sense of connection.
Ever looked into someone’s eyes and seen complete understanding? A short talk on the experience of the eyes:
I love what Emily Esfahani Smith says. She is someone I can always count on, much like Brené Brown, to speak very authentically, with a powerful, conscious heart. Emily Esfahani Smith is a researcher and author. The findings that she speaks about are much of what I have noticed in my own explorations and trials and tribulations of experiencing meaning in life. I am grateful also for the interviewer who goes in rapid pace to ensure that Emily covers a lot of ground in useful depth of her knowledge in this area. I truly hope you enjoy this amazing interview.
“Every person is sacred. Every human life is a parable, a story which has spiritual value.”
-Anthony T. Padovano
Jim Carrey has been going through an “existential discovery” for some years
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GbLsOF4avIs
“I used to be a guy who was experiencing the world, and now I feel like the world and the universe experiencing a guy.”
-Jim Carrey
Was having issues with the audio, so couldnt include an intro and outro this time. But will try to have it working for next time. Enjoy!