What does life really mean?

Life isn't about finding yourself. Life is about creating yourself.
_George Bernard Shaw

The above quote succinctly depicts the reality of life to every individual. The life we lead has constantly proved to be a battle for balance between the realities we face and the dreams we expect. Where constantly we are saddled with responsibility by those around us, who believe us to be able to rise to the situation regardless of what our own current dilemma maybe. As such, constantly, in our day to day activities we search for ourselves, for a similitude of an act that resembles ours, for people that align with us, for that common ground between us and the next person. Unfortunately, life has refused to remain sunshine and rainbows, and we find ourselves in situations where we are met with people we do not know and with situations that seem to overshadow us. Life throws us stones and hits us harder than the hammer does the nail. At this point we are brought to the juncture of decision where we are faced with the choice of giving up or pressing on in the hope of finding ourselves. We face fires and trials from those around us that makes us question the very essence of our being and the reality of our humanity, but in such situations, there always is a glimmer of hope. Life blossoms when we come to understand who we are and where we are, why we are here and what our purpose is, this is why great men of history have said "life is what you make out of it". A story is told of a donkey that fell into a well. When the villagers couldn't think of a way to rescue it, they decided to bury it and begun pouring sand into the well, when the donkey first realised, it fought back, but eventually became calm, not in acceptance of fate but in a resolution to find a solution, and so it shook if each heap of sand that landed on it's back and slowly rose till it was out of the well, and trotted away happily. This story depicts what our lives are, bad situations always come, and things always happen to get us questioning our faith, but in all these, we are expected to learn from the donkey, who even when it seemed like all hope was gone shook off the debris and rose again.
In all, the message here is, life is what we create, we are who we decide to be, and neither fate nor circumstance can stop us from rising if our minds are tuned to change. Michael Jackson once said to change the world, start with the man in the mirror, in similar vein, a call rings out to us all now, to be the change we want to see, in our circumstances, in our situations and in the world at large. The change begins with you as much as it begins with me... So let's remember, we are not defined by the circumstances of our birth or the depraving nature of our situations, but by our decision, either to be swept along with the crowd by giving up, or to make for ourselves a little Paradise through perseverance.

Change your view of the world, orientate yourself to see only the positive side of situations and slowly and steadily rise from the debris to the happiness that is meant to be our existence.

               __ Anonymous