# What are we pursuing in life?

What are we ultimately pursuing throughout our entire lives?

This passage comes from Lai Sheng Yuan, a 75-year-old writer, and after reading it, I was filled with emotions.

He said that for the past several years, he's been pondering a question. According to statistics, only 44% of people can live to his age, so what is he still worrying about? What is he still troubled by?

Liang Shiqiu once said: After 50, each year seems worse than the last; after 60, each month seems worse than the last; at this age, you truly feel each day is worse than before; after 80, it's each hour that seems worse than the last.

So what are we ultimately pursuing throughout our lives?

In fact, countless people have overlooked a truth: many things simply don't need to have meaning. Life itself is just a journey. Eating, drinking, and having fun doesn't mean wasting time; working hard doesn't necessarily deserve praise.

Life is inherently a process of continuously experiencing and feeling. So we don't necessarily have to do things that society deems as meaningful—that's someone else's life. The meaning of your life must be something you give to yourself.

If you want, you can do seemingly meaningless things: daydream, watch the clouds, watch the sunrise, count the stars. Experience is the greatest meaning.

Life is wilderness, not a railroad track; in all directions there is scenery. As long as you're enjoying the present moment, then it has meaning.

In this brief lifetime, after a hundred years, there will be no you and no me. We struggle our whole lives but can't take a single brick or tile with us; we persist a lifetime but can't take a trace of love, hate, or passion. So why waste time quarreling, being sad, or measuring every loss and gain? Better to use the time saved to love and enjoy. Everything in this world is unstoppable; whether pain or beauty, viewed over time, they're all fleeting clouds. So only living in the present moment is most real and most important.

In childhood, forgetting homework seemed like the end of the world; in school, not getting into a good university seemed catastrophic; in love, a breakup seemed tragic. But looking back now, those seemingly insurmountable obstacles have already been overcome; those facts we thought unacceptable have all been accepted.

Life is full of choices, and regret is actually the norm of human life. I'll tell you a truth: no matter what choice you make, you will regret it. People habitually romanticize the path they didn't take, but everyone knows deep down that even if time rewound, with the same mindset and experience you had then, you'd make the same choice again.

Looking back, a light boat has passed ten thousand mountains; looking ahead, the long road ahead is brilliant.

Then, humans are actually all different: some are gone in their twenties, some are still alive in their nineties; some lose their lives in an instant, some lie in bed for decades before passing; some are highly educated but delivering food, some without much education are already bosses; some beautiful people are still single in their forties and fifties, while some unattractive people married and started families early; some capable people barely see their parents a few times a year, while ordinary people enjoy a lifetime of family gatherings and the joys of kinship.

So tell me, what is right and what is wrong? What is good and what is bad? Which one is the standard answer for the meaning of life?

The fact is, there is no standard. Your heart is the standard.

When that number—your age—appears before you, you suddenly realize life is truly fleeting. Remember, nothing can be redone, yet you still have time to love those you love, pursue what you seek, and enjoy—treading across green mountains while still young.

If you still insist on asking what the meaning of life is, then I'll tell you: life has no particular meaning. 99% of people will have all traces of their existence erased by time within three generations.

So the meaning of life lies in the collection of experiences from the brief few decades you're alive. Never waste time on trivial matters and petty gains, adding only troubles; don't punish yourself with others' mistakes.

The world is impermanent; one sleep is one day, one sleep you don't wake from is a lifetime. We never know which comes first—tomorrow or the unexpected.

So all we can do is savor every meal with care, admire every bloom with attention, appreciate every landscape mindfully, fulfill every responsibility completely, and feel every moment of happiness and joy in the present with our hearts.

What is happiness? Happiness is actually very simple—just nine words: a home to return to, people who care, and food to eat.

So-called peaceful times are nothing more than a steaming bowl of rice at home and the light that's always kept on for you in your house.

Life always has too many things that come too late; one blink and it's a day, one look back and it's a year, one turn and it's a lifetime.

The happiness we pursue our whole lives is not in the past nor the future—it's in the present: the scenery in your eyes, the food in your bowl, the people by your side.

Three meals and four seasons, family sitting idly together, blessings flowing smoothly, warm lights welcoming you—this is the best scene in the human world.

For the rest of our days, let us all live well.