What is the meaning of life?

By guest blogger, and mentee (aged 17) James Wilkinson

your meaning of life isn't something that comes from actively searching, it comes to you. you just have to make yourself more visible. one day, you'll find something that you want to do. writing music, building things, owning a farm, wanting to feel free, something as big as wanting to leave a mark, or even something as seemingly mundane as talking to people. it doesnt matter whether it makes a difference to the world or not. we can be selfish, but we think our meaning in life has to be for the greater good because the people who tell us their meaning are those who want to make an impact. but thats not true. your meaning in life is something that gets you out of bed in the morning, it makes you ready and willing to live on. its something that leaves you satisfied. other people cant tell you whether its a real meaning or not, because no person has the same meaning. thats why were unique. we can be whatever we want to be. sometimes we hear that quote and dont think much about it. but if you think about it, we really can be whatever we want, do whatever we want. we just have to be willing. the greatest thing about your meaning is, youll know when youve found it. in my opinion, the book 'hitchhikers guide to the galaxy' explains it well. it says the meaning of life, the universe and everything is the number 42. a seemingly insignificant number. but when converted to ASCII, it becomes *. the wildcard. because thats what life is. a wildcard. it can be whatever you want it to be. it can change. 

Ed note:

ASCii is in coding how computers store text. 

All a computer can do is store numbers. Since it can’t store letters it stores numbers and translates them. 

James is a mentee and TeenTasker at Dhamma Gamil. He's employed twice weekly for permaculture, coding and emerging problem-solving in the community. He is also an avid photographer and philosopher. He tells me the Apostle Birds live in groups of 11 or 12, "like the apostles in the bible." They love to huddle and they stay with their same group for life.