There are really few people who can speak to this with the enlightenment and honest scope and candour, as Victor Frankl, who wrote the book by the same name. It has an obvious universal theme that helped sell over 9 million copies-it takes a stab at why we are here.

Renowned neurologist and psychiatrist,  Frankl, developed “logotherapy” which claims that it is the striving to find a meaning in one’s life that is the primary motivating force for humans. He wrote about his experience in death camps to “convey to the reader by way of concrete example that life holds potential meaning under any conditions, even the most miserable ones”. He found that when everything could be taken from you-your home, your possessions and your loved ones-your soul could not be.  My favourite image is of the potato that is sewn into the hem of his robe which was his to give away when he came across someone needing it. Someone needing something more than him. A soulful  and most generous act in the middle of Hell.

This echos through my mind-“it did not really matter what we expected from life, but rather what life expected from us ” So the meaning in life in general is less the point-it is what we need to do at any given juncture.

There are moments even now when I am melancholy about what my family life is no longer- those Father’s days when the Father of my children is not beside me in bed to be surprised by us all or that aching feeling when we get a family picture taken and there are three girls and only three girls and nothing else to anchor it the beautiful way a man can,  or the abrupt and final stop  and restart  in our  photo albums.

But I realize that none of that is promised or guaranteed and somehow all we have is the attitude that we choose. It is not about being married, staying married or having a specific job, your health or the ever elusive key to happiness. It is the essence of your soul plopped in the middle of everything and your attitude as you fumble through life.

The last of human freedoms

is to choose one’s attitude

in any given set of circumstances

-Victor Frankl

What is your code for living well? Take a look at DNR on my other blog which wants to reach you as well but can only do so if you click here