The Measure of a Life

This phrase has haunted me of late.  It's part of the lyrics of a song I really like, but the harmonic that touched me was more about what's going on today around me.

I've been trying to determine how to get my head around the measure of one's life by somehow defining that yardstick and holding myself up to it.  This has come about due to personal circumstance changes, but I see others also struggling with this - often without recognizing the nature of their predicament.  I can share the struggle itself doesn't feel very good and drives self doubt and worry when our preconceived ideas no longer align to the current situation we may find ourselves in.  This can happen in a range of ways - employed to being unemployed or retired; married to unmarried and so on. 

How we value ourselves and deal with changes in our situations often tests our long term view (I am talking after-all of the measure of one's life moreso than the measure of a year or other period).  So in some ways my own "ah-ha moment" arrived when I recognized the unacknowledged variable here - time.  As in the shorter periods where we can't see above the waves currently around us.  But that doesn't mean we're drifting the wrong way, it simply means we can't see how we'll get there from the current vantage-point. 

Admittedly it's hard to do course corrections if you don't have a destination, a heading, or an idea where you are at any precise moment. But that's the very nature of the question here I think.   While the pathway was never going to straight, if we have an idea where we want to go, we'll be able to navigate to be able to get there. 

I don't think there is a universal truth here - what the measure of a life is (So long, and thanks for all the fish), rather, there is an answer we can each be at peace with and it is different for each of us. The trick is to be comfortable with your own answer, and then lean into it.