Meaning is a mysterious thing and can be elusive. My hope is that this blog will provide some ideas for those of you who are seeking to make your lives more meaningful, and comfort for those who are preoccupied by worries about meaninglessness.
But I have to be honest. I cannot guarantee that you will necessarily read anything here that is going to provide the complete answer. The meaning of your individual life is incredibly unlikely to reveal itself in a blaze of glory, much as we would like it to.
It's much more likely that it will be a gradual appreciation and recognition of the things that make our lives meaningful and worthwhile. It's likely that this process will be more like a voyage of discovery, than a dramatic revelation.
Fulfilling one's meaning in life is so incredibly personal and no two people would do so in exactly the same way. That's because there is no definitive answer. There is unfortunately no list of ingredients to buy or recipe to follow in making a meaningful life. We each must take personal responsibility for finding meaning IN life and keep an open mind as to the meaning OF life.
Viktor Frankl advises that 'The will to meaning is unique and specific in that it must and can be fulfilled by him alone; only then does it achieve a significance which will satisfy his own will to meaning'.
So we cannot hope that others will provide the answers for us. For us to develop a personal sense of meaning in our lives we must take the bull by the horns and grapple with this issue ourselves.
But saying that 'it must and can be fulfilled by him alone' is not to say that one has to do it on one's own. The point of this blog is that people realize there are many, many, many people struggling with exactly these same questions and fears and issues. By sharing ideas and ways in which some people have successfully fulfilled their sense of meaning, I hope that others will be able to benefit.
No one else can fight the battle against meaninglessness for you, but they can lend you the weapons that help you to win.