You're Part Of A Mystery!

There’s nothing better than a riveting mystery.  Whether it’s a great movie or novel, when you’re caught up in trying to solve a problem, time flies and your interest soars.  What most people don’t think about often enough is that we’re all part of a mystery in this Journey of Life that we’re all on.  For those of us who have reached retirement age, we’ve accumulated more “clues” to solve parts of the mystery, but the true meaning of life has been a subject for the great philosophers for thousands of years.  It does make for some interesting conversations and is something I have thought about quite often.

You can begin with yourself.  Most of the people I’ve met don’t really know themselves as well as they think they do.  They look to others for clues about what happiness and fulfillment is when the only answers to those questions are found within us.  I fully admit that I had no idea about what I wanted to do with my life in terms of a career and, if I had to start over again, my answer wouldn’t be much better than it was fifty years ago when I was in college.  It’s part of a mystery I haven’t solved and I’m still working on it.  I have found out that I like to write a lot more than I thought.  It took my retirement years to point that out to me.  I was too busy working at a job that took a lot of my time to think about what it was that I really wanted to do.  You can’t just quit a job and try to support a family with a writing career.  At least I couldn’t.  But I didn’t have to worry about making a living after I retired and that is part of the amazing gift a retirement is.  If there was ever something you wanted to try, now is the time to do it.  And delving into those types of activities reveals part of a mystery about who you are and why you’re here.

Your very existence is part of a mystery.

I think each of us has a purpose in life.  It doesn’t mean we have to do great things that will make us famous.  It’s more like doing the little things that bring us happiness.  Providing a good life for my wife and family was my purpose in life.  I know that because that’s where my happiest moments in life can be found.  I also know that I have too many interests to stay focused on one for a whole lifetime.  Some might say that’s a disorder of some kind, but I don’t think it is.  Studying history, traveling and writing have been incredibly satisfying all through my life and, now that I don’t have a job that takes up fifty or sixty hours a week, I am able to answer any questions that come to mind as I look at the events of the day and compare them to other times in history.  Adding a little trip to a place where an important event happened is an absolute delight to me and I can’t fully explain why that is, but I know it’s part of a mystery in which we each play a part.  We’re all different and that’s what makes life so interesting.  If we learn to appreciate those differences in each other rather than criticizing or ridiculing those unique characteristics, this world becomes a much happier place.

Someone just told me about their purchase of thirteen goats and, while that kind of activity has almost no appeal to me, I couldn't help but appreciate how excited she got as she described how cute she thought each one was.  It’s amazing how diverse this world is and how unique each of us are and that’s part of mystery I think we were all put on this earth to figure out.  What causes us to become obsessed over certain things while other people couldn’t be bothered?  Why does history fascinate me so much?  I was twelve years old when President Kennedy was assassinated in an event that is still being dissected to determine exactly what happened.  You can’t believe my reaction when I was able to visit the School Book Depository in Dallas and look out of the same window that the assassin did.  Being able to visit the homes of some of the Presidents is something that I never get tired of no matter how many times I’ve been.  Each visit to Mount Vernon is a cause for excitement for me.

I hope you have something that excites you and that you’ve spent some time trying to figure out the meaning of life and why we’ve each been put on this earth.  We’re part of mystery that’s bigger than anything else we’ve ever imagined.  It’s the biggest question of all time and when we start to look for answers, even more questions arise.  It’s the start of a journey down a road that never ends and attempting to discover answers about why you exist in this world at this moment can be the biggest treasure hunt you’ve ever been on.  Read some of the great philosophers.  Examine your life for a better understanding of why things happened the way they did.  It might awaken something in you that you never knew existed.  It’s time to start exploring.  It’s time to Enjoy Retired Life!

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