Unimportance sound the words
The summer fades on every turn
When gravity pulls the leaves
Underfoot, a blanket so gentle
And the Earth moves the sun
To a horizon less familiar

Consuming dust settles and stirs
Ionic clouds spin stars to life
Collision and friction
The irresistible attraction
Light breaks on new horizons

Ice flows circumference span
Trees die to desert sand
Oceans wide and oceans divide
Mountain rise to fall again

All that passed on this way grown
Until nothing is left but rock and bone
Life will rise and conscience drive
Survive and thrive beneath benevolent light

Changes create new from old
Cycles of birth and death
Of form and flow
The ageless stories told

Pathways break in evening rain
Morning sun makes them whole again
Thoughts surround the sounds and words
Heard in a natural din of cosmic silence
Traveling the heavens' corridor
Urged on by the breath of creation

Nothing appears to be what it seems
Unless experience can recall
And there exists a mind that dreams
Reason and ration
Desire to question
The answers unfold for simple beings

And this way will come to pass
Questions answered will matter naught
To rock and dust and ocean tide
To ice that creeps circumference wide
To ground that settles but never still
And the cosmos empty icy chill
The evidence will spread beyond the stars
Of a simple life that once was ours

But all is silent in the cosmic din
Lost consciousness to never rise again

It seems as though we have been asking since we gained reasonable consciousness, reason and ration as a species, "What is the meaning of life?" Somehow we can't seem to accept the answer that, there is no higher meaning. Life is just life. It doesn't mean anything to a species that doesn't have the same ability to question, to ration, to reason that we do. The fact that we evolved to have this kind of consciousness doesn't change that life for us is the same as life for every other living being on our planet: we are born, we live in a quest to survive as long as possible, to propagate our species, to help ensure the survival of future generations, then we pass on to leave our resources back to the creation of more life.

The meaning of life might be:  To Live.  And that is all.

Except in our case.  We have the intelligence and the reason, and the ration to choose our paths in living. We can shape our world; we can make our environment everything we want it to be. If we want to live in peace and harmony with all other life in this planet, we can choose to do so. If we want to question, to learn and to explore everything that surrounds us, it is within our means.

Look around. How good of a job are we doing at creating the world we want to live in? I see a lot of room for improvement - but this is a choice, a decision, and a path within our power. So what we really need to do is admit to ourselves that isn't what we want. If we wanted peace and prosperity, we would have it. Instead we have turmoil. We have war over resources. We have war over belief systems. We have disputes over people's rights based on social rules WE created and have complete power to change for the betterment of our society. Not laws, but rules.  Laws exist to ensure we don't infringe on the rights of others, yet the rules we create infringe without question.  It is hypocritical and yet so often we are rigid and inflexible to changing these rules.  Instead of sharing love and compassion, we fight over money and possessions. We can each change that - but we don't. So obviously, we don't want to.

I always say that if you want to look at recycling programs, nothing competes with the Earth. The Earth can recycle anything - especially the living. Millions of species - perhaps even billions - over the life of the Earth have come and gone. We will too. We can look to the fact the dinosaurs, collectively, dominated the Earth of hundreds of millions of years, but how many individual species may have come and gone in a small fraction of that time? Either dying out with little notice or simply evolving to something better equipped for their ever changing environment.

We are arrogant as a species because we have the ability to be arrogant. But we are insignificant against the cosmos - the power of gravity, the machines in motion - the machine we call home that is constantly changing, moving and evolving while so many of us hang tight to outdated concepts thinking we are somehow immortal.

We are not immortal. In fact, as far as fragile species go, we are perhaps one of the most fragile. Why do I think this? Because it is how we've chosen to be. I mean, what other species in the whole history of our planet has developed to tools and means to wipe out tens, to hundreds, to hundreds of thousands of it's own kind with the push of a button?  How many other species have been willing to push that button in the name of a higher power that it can't even be proven exists?

None. Except us.

How stupid. Stupid and arrogant considering we view ourselves as the most intelligent species to ever occupy this planet.

What is the meaning of life? It is time we stop asking that question externally and start looking for that answer within us. What do we want the answer to be? Stop looking to ancient books written by men that hold no relevance to our world today. They were written for a different time and times change. We must evolve. It is the way. That is life.

Eventually, humans won't be here anymore. That is the way. That is life. It is inevitable. Look at the history of this planet that can be read in the rocks and the sands. Species come and go, and we are just one more on the list. The only question that remains for us is, do we change our path and allow ourselves to evolve into the next, greater and dominant species - or do we end our existence with a bang, leaving nothing but traces of our existence to be unearthed millions of years from now?  Or is this just going to be a slow and painful sunset on what could have been, as we choke, starve, and struggle in a biosphere that we depend on but are destroying and thus destroy ourselves?

It's our choice...

Seems bleak and it is a lot easier to hold on to the hope (no, not the belief, but the HOPE) that after we pass on as individuals there is a greater calling for us.  If you still hold that hope you are failing to realize your greater calling is here.  Here and now.  To make these choices and decide if we continue to have a future or we we simply become part of the past.