The Paradox of Fulfillment

Getting Lost in Man's Search for Happiness

You're born but didn’t choose it

Life is hard and challenging

You suffer along the way

The good times, the great relationships, are so fleeting

You have a deep inclining that there is more to life

That fulfillment is possible

You know it in your bones 

You search for your happiness in the world

You double down on more, better, and different.

More money, better relationships, different experiences

But winning only makes you thirsty for more.

The game of pleasure is a cunning teacher who drowns you in your own desires.

You come to realize that all of the pleasures are just fleeting moments

They are the empty calories of experience

And this only makes the situation worse,

because everywhere you look, 

everywhere you try to find it, 

it's not there

It is nowhere to be found 

At best, what you have are beautiful, fleeting moments

Here today, gone tomorrow

There is nothing you can hold onto

As you get older, you start losing your closest friends

You become more and more alone

You might even wonder, what is the point of it all?

Life looks absurd. 

And all the while, a great wind carries you forward.

Perhaps this is the beauty of it all.

It’s suffering that softens your heart and helps you wake up

It’s by wrestling with the meaningless, empty absurdity that you can discover the profound.

It’s by contending with the false that you find the real. 

Through this, you realize that there is no object in the world called ‘happiness’, ‘fulfillment’, ‘purpose’, or ‘meaning’.

You can’t buy it or own it.

It's not a thing, 

It is not out there somewhere.

Instead, it is a relationship.

A relationship with your world.

Only by contending with your own darkness can you find you the light

And as you dig deeper into this relationship, life will reveal itself to you.

In your quiet moments, a profound realization will pour into you that, in fact, you are not alone. 

That you are a part of something much, much bigger. 

That you are where you need to be and that you are always home. 

That life is like a great song, with ups and downs, that is meant to be enjoyed.