Searching For Meaning[1]
Since the
beginning of my retirement I have been asking myself; “who am I”. I believe
that this blog is an important task that I have created for myself as I find
information to send out to the world of the internet. According to Dr. Osborne “Meaning provides coherence to our
lives and leads to purpose.” “ Our
meanings may originate from our private experience of be taken from an outside
source like science or religion. (While I grew up inside a Christian church in
later years I have been closer to scientific research that focuses on level of
probability rather than certainty).
Some of the
things that meaning can take are:
“Trying to make the world a better place for others, working for a cause
(civil rights); creating a new idea using technology; creating an art form or
work of art; making the most of one’s life; working on one’s evolution to
higher states of consciousness (I love meditation). “The question remains as to the point of creating these
types of meanings. The concern is
whether there is an ultimate meaning that encompasses all meanings.” For me helping others has always been
important ; quite likely because I was the oldest child born in my parent’s
family and learned early that being a helper is “who I am.”
“Being part
of a group or collective gives us the meaning of belonging to a group, ( for
years I have been on the board of the local senior’s centre-LSRS. I have a
meeting this afternoon.) We need
to work on our own self-development within the context of a world beyond narrow
self-interest. At the same time we
need to be careful we don’t trade our potential self-hood for the security of
the collective.” Good Luck!
[1] The
Above post was gathered from Essential Retirement: Psychological Concerns
presented by John W, Osborne
ISBN 0-9738303-9-1
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