“The that means of life is simply to be alive. It’s so plain and so apparent and so easy. And but, all people rushes round in an incredible panic as if it have been crucial to realize one thing past themselves.” ~Alan Watts
As I enter the later stage of life, I discover myself asking questions which might be much less about accomplishment and extra about that means. What issues now, when the necessity to show myself has softened, however the previous voices of expectation nonetheless echo in my thoughts?
In a world that prizes novelty, velocity, and success, I’m wondering what occurs once we’re not chasing these issues. What occurs when our power shifts from striving to listening? Can a life nonetheless be significant with out the highlight? Can we cease making an attempt to be distinctive—and nonetheless really feel like we belong?
These questions have taken root in me—not simply as passing ideas, however as deep inquiries that coloration my mornings, my quiet moments, even my goals. I don’t suppose they’re simply my questions. I consider they replicate one thing many people face as we get older and start to see life by way of a special lens—not the lens of ambition, however of consideration.
Some mornings, I get up not sure of what I’m going to do. There’s no pressing undertaking right now, nobody needing my management, no schedule pulling me into movement. So I sit. I breathe. I attempt to pay attention—to not the noise of the world, however to one thing quieter: my very own breath, my heartbeat, the faint hum of presence beneath all of it.
I’ve had a life filled with significant work. I’ve been a filmmaker, a instructor, a musician, a author, a nonprofit director. I’ve labored throughout cultures and disciplines, usually off the overwhelmed path. It was by no means glamorous, but it surely was honest. Nonetheless, regardless of all of that, a voice used to whisper: not sufficient.
I wasn’t the final one picked, however I used to be not often the primary. I wasn’t ignored, however I wasn’t the standout. I didn’t acquire awards or titles. I walked a special street—and someplace alongside the way in which, I absorbed the assumption that being “sufficient” meant being distinctive: chosen, praised, seen.
Even after I claimed to not care about recognition, a part of me nonetheless needed it. And when it didn’t come, I quietly started to doubt the worth of the trail I’d chosen.
Wanting again, I see how early that want took maintain. As a baby, I usually felt peripheral—not excluded, however not important both. I had concepts, goals, questions, however I can’t recall anybody asking what they have been. The absence of actual listening—from lecturers, adults, techniques—left a refined wound. It taught me to measure price by response. If nobody requested, possibly it didn’t matter. Perhaps I didn’t matter.
That form of message burrows deep. It doesn’t shout—it whispers. It tells you to show your self. To attempt. To succeed in for validation as a substitute of grounding in your personal presence. And so, like many, I spent many years chasing a way of that means, hoping it might be confirmed by the world round me.
When that affirmation didn’t come, I mistook my quiet path for failure. However now I see it extra clearly: I used to be by no means failing—I used to be dwelling. I simply didn’t have the cultural mirror to see myself clearly.
As a result of this isn’t simply private—it’s cultural.
In American life, we speak about honoring our elders, however we not often do. We rejoice youth, disruption, and innovation however overlook continuity, reflection, and reminiscence. Getting old is framed as decline, slightly than depth. Invisibility turns into a quiet destiny.
The office retires you. The tradition tunes you out. Even household buildings shift, usually unintentionally, to prioritize the brand new.
It’s not simply people who really feel this. It’s the society itself shedding its anchor.
In different cultures, ageing is seen otherwise. The Stoics known as knowledge the best advantage. Indigenous communities deal with elders as keepers of information, not as relics. The Vikings entrusted decision-making to their gray-haired assemblies. The Clan Moms of the Haudenosaunee and Queen Moms of West Africa held revered management roles rooted in time-earned perception, not in youth.
These cultures perceive one thing we’ve forgotten: that perspective takes time. That knowledge isn’t the product of velocity however of stillness. That life turns into extra helpful—not much less—when it’s been deeply lived.
So the query shifts for me. It’s not simply What’s the purpose of my life now? It turns into What sort of tradition not sees the purpose of lives like mine? If we measure human worth solely by productiveness, we find yourself discarding not simply individuals—however the knowledge they carry.
Nonetheless, I don’t wish to simply critique the tradition. I wish to stay otherwise. If the world has misplaced its reminiscence of how you can honor elders, maybe step one is to remember myself—and stay into that function, even when nobody names it for me.
In recent times, I’ve discovered grounding in Buddhist teachings—not as perception, however as a approach to stroll. The 4 Noble Truths converse on to my expertise.
Struggling exists. And one in all its roots is tanhā—the longing for issues to be aside from they’re.
That craving as soon as took the type of ambition, of perfectionism, of searching for approval. However now I see it extra clearly. I suffered not as a result of I lacked that means—however as a result of I believed that means needed to look a sure approach.
The Third Noble Reality provides one thing radical: the potential for launch. Not by way of accomplishment, however by way of letting go. And the Eightfold Path—Proper View, Proper Intention, Proper Motion, Proper Livelihood, and so forth—doesn’t prescribe a purpose—it provides a rhythm. A approach to return to the current.
Letting go doesn’t imply retreat. It means softening the grip. Not greedy for certainty, however sitting with what’s actual. Not proving something, however dwelling with care.
Carl Jung suggested his sufferers to interrupt a sweat and preserve a journal. I attempt to do each.
Writing is how I make sense of what I really feel. It slows me down. It attracts me into presence. I don’t write to be recognized. I write to know myself. Even when the phrases stay unseen, the method itself feels holy—as a result of it’s sincere.
I’ve stopped ready for somebody to provide me a platform or function. I’ve begun to stay as if what I supply issues, even when nobody applauds.
And on the most effective days, that seems like freedom.
There are nonetheless mornings when doubt returns: Did I do sufficient? Did I miss my second? However I come again to this:
It issues as a result of it’s true. Not as a result of it’s exceptional. Not as a result of it modified the world. However as a result of I lived it sincerely. I stayed near what mattered to me. I didn’t look away.
That’s what belief feels prefer to me now—not certainty or success, however a quiet willingness to maintain strolling, to maintain displaying up, to preserve listening. To stay this last chapter not as a decline, however as a deepening.
Perhaps the purpose isn’t to be distinctive. Perhaps it’s to be current, to be actual, to be type. Perhaps it’s to cross on one thing quieter than legacy however extra lasting than ego: consideration, care, perspective.
Perhaps that’s what elders have been all the time meant to do.
About Tony Collins
Tony Collins is a documentary filmmaker, educator, and author whose work explores creativity, caregiving, and private progress. He’s the creator of: Home windows to the Sea—a shifting assortment of essays on love, loss, and presence. Inventive Scholarship—a information for educators and artists rethinking how artistic work is valued. Tony writes to replicate on what issues—and to assist others really feel much less alone.
