We are pieces of the Universe granted a brief moment of consciousness in the grand machinations of the cosmos. A cruel, painful, beautiful and wonderous experience. As the mother of science-fiction put it:

Life, although it may only be an accumulation of anguish, is dear to me, and I will defend it.

Mary Shelley, Frankenstein

It is therefore our life’s goal to make the suffering worthwhile. What that might be will differ to each person, based on nature, nurture, religion, wealth, perspective or some combination of some or all. But to me, it comes down to two things: Love, and Self-Realization.

Which is where my answer to the question comes in. Love I have experienced, though it took the teacher of hindsight to reveal its nature to me.

The second, Self-Realization, I define as being an artistic expression of one’s soul; the ultimate manifestation of cosmological self-awareness. The Universe has come alive in I, and so I bare a mirror to it so that it may marvel it itself.

In short, an artistic work, in the broadest sense of the term. A song, a story, a poem, a painting, a sculpture, architecture, engineering, even a child. Some kind of creation from one’s being that one pours their soul into and that it may live on and serve as the essence of one’s life.

I like to think there is something like that in all of us, and with the right commitment, circumstance, and motivation, we can manifest it.

What makes me nervous, is that I may fail. That circumstance or laziness should dull and idle me, so that I reach the end of my time and must apologise to the cosmos for being empty-handed.

It was that nervousness that spurned me to change life direction, and it continues to power me.

Someday, I’m sure, I’ll succeed. Hopefully. I hope you can too.