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The everlasting question; the everlasting 'Why' , resonates in most of our heads on a daily basis - be it conscious or none: what is the meaning of life?

Everyone has a different idea: some say it is to avoid suffering by not 'wanting'; others think it's all about finding happiness, be it through mindless consumerism, the latest gossip in glossy magazines, going to church every Sunday, becoming completely atheist or reductionist or by blindly following the new 'Law of Attraction' zeitgeist making millions for some.

But even still then, the real answer avoids all of us like a phantom. We never do find eternal happiness here on old Earth. It is always there for a split second, and then washed away by arguments, the job, the fat, the craving, the traffic, the sweaty metro, pollution, bad news and lost love...

It would also seem that this new 'Law of Attraction' Holy Grail is not working out so well for most of us, answered by the gurus: you are not asking for the right things...

But what if life was not all about happiness? What if life was the ultimate Journey, happiness being the bread crumb trail in your Hansel & Gretel forest or the emotional interpretation of the correct following of synchronistic events we mistake for 'coincidence'?

There seems to be much more to life than simple hedonistic pleasures and mindless bliss; this apparent from our morbid and unfailing gravitation towards the very things that break our hearts. We always run towards an accident scene and more importanltly: we love to see our heroes endure and then victor their suffering.

When we study comparative mythology, we find a golden thread binding existence: the Monomythical Hero's Journey: from Osiris, Moses, Buddha, Krishna, Jesus, Gandhi, Virracocha, Mandella to John Mc Cain and....You - the journey of the Hero: living the ordinary life, being heralded to a higher purpose, crossing the threshold, suffering tremendously and eventually, return home with the elixir of life....

Life is neither about suffering nor happiness; it is not about wanting or not wanting; it is not about mindless glamorous consumerism nor being a fundamentalist environmentalist...

Life is about The Journey....Your Journey. Life is about living life, experiencing the sour and the sweet, happiness as well as despair. Life is learning to love and be loved, to give and be given to.

Life is about living now...so go on and live!

Learn more about this author, Jean Erasmus.
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