What is the meaning of life?

Life is a teacher we are told. In life, we laugh when we are happy,mourn when we lose a loved one,cry when we are in pain and crave for a shoulder to put our heads on, jubilate when our aspirations are met, and give thanks when favour shines on us.

Life could be miserable to some people, a walking shadow to others, a bowl of pits to some, a great big canvas where you should throw all the paint on it as far as you can. Life could be a tree planted by the rivers of water to some people.

Learning by Experience

I remember when I was growing up and I and my siblings used to have family meetings with my parents. This is the forum for a periodic review of our performance as children in the family in terms of obedience, humility, proactive to instructions among other criteria.

My Dad would start the meeting with a long talk about life and the benefits of being good children.

Nontheless, It is also a forum where we are reminded of our "sins" as children and if necessary get punished for our "domestic crimes".

In one of these meetings, my Dad asked us "how many times would you fall before you learn".

We all started struggling with the answer. I remember telling my Dad that I would fall once and learn lessons from my mistake.

One of my younger ones said "dad because we are human, we may fall up to two or three times before we learn"

The other one said "Dad, we would learn as many times as we fall"

After all our answers, my Dad smiled silently and commended us for an attempt while my mom watched with much attention.

He told us that the best way to learn is to look at the mishaps, failures, and mistakes of others, and general way of life of others to derive your lessons.

What happens to others are your learning tools

You don't have to wait until you fall before you put in place strategies that would stop you from falling.

However, as life could sometimes be mysterious, if you fall, be quick to know what made you fall and learn great lessons from it so as to never fall because of such issues again.

No one is infallible, at one time or the other, out of human weakness, negligence, stubbornness, or life tragedy,we may fall.

How many times do we have to cry to lessen our Pains?

Henry Maudsley said that the sorrow which has no vent in tears may make other organs weep. We don't need to be ashamed of our tears.

It is natural to cry over what we are facing- an unhappy situation, broken relationships,loss of good job, loss of loved one. It could be physical or emotional pain.

Generally,most people feel some sense of relief after a bout of crying.

Although you are free to cry over your pains for tears washes the soul but never weary your soul with tears.

Remember that prolonged and continuous crying does not heal your pains but adds to your psychological imbalance and may trigger stress hormones according to biomedical research.

Can't we be happy over the unplanned?

I am struggling to understand this part properly with the hope to reach you.

Life and its challenges cannot be predicted with precision. We can only check it a bit.The only way to checkmate it a bit is to plan if you want to be in charge.

Most people have enjoyed much peace and happiness in life over unplanned issues. Yet, it doesn't always work that way.

Many do put the best plans in place but are rewarded with unhappiness due to disappointments. Their hopes are dashed.

So, it works both ways.

Just try your best in understanding the tunes of life and dance it with its steps to make a breakthrough.

It all reminds us that life on earth is not perfect.