I was speaking with a friend not long ago, someone who spends his hours alongside me in the work we call charity. He told me that he enjoys the work but it is not his life. The remark stayed with me, almost like an echo that does not fade. It led me into the question of what I would call my life, if I were asked to name it.
I arrived at three words. Experiential. Qualitative. Meaningful.
These three words form a kind of compass for me, though not one that points north so much as one that reminds me not to drift.
To live experientially is to recognize that our time here is brief, and that it would be a waste to pass through it without tasting its variety. The earth is vast and the span of a human life is short. We must touch as much of it as we can. Yet there is a danger in the pursuit of experience for its own sake. Quantity without attention becomes noise, and one can drown in such noise.
That is why the second word matters. Qualitative. It is not only what we experience but how we engage with it. I have thought of myself, at times, as a collector of experiences, but not of trinkets. I have sought the kind that leave a resonance, the kind that ask me to look again and to notice more. Quality requires presence. It requires care. And in the quality of my experiences I have found a certain satisfaction, as though life offers a kind of artistry to those who are willing to linger rather than rush.
Still, satisfaction is not the end of the story. We can gather all the rich experiences of the world and still feel a hollow silence when the lights dim. That is where the third word insists upon its place. Meaningful.
For what is meaningful shapes not just the memory of experience but its weight in the soul. To call something meaningful is to say it contributes to fulfillment, to the sense that life has not merely been lived but has grown into something more than itself.
So I return to those three words. Experiential. Qualitative. Meaningful. They are not commandments, nor are they rigid rules. They are more like stones set in a path, guiding one’s steps without enclosing those who walk upon them.
To live by them is to move through life with a spirit both open and deliberate. It is to collect not only moments but to collect them in such a way that they form a story that is whole.
If at the end of my days I can say that I have lived by these three words, then I think I will not feel cheated. I will have known a life not only of satisfaction but of fulfillment. And perhaps that is the richest life one can hope for.
Join us in making the world a better place. You’ll be glad that you did.
Cheers, friends.