THE MEANING OF LIFE

Human Beings are the only animal that has the capability to work out what things mean.  In addition to all the sensory and stimulus response mechanisms of plants and animals we have cognition.  Cognition is a powerful additional layer enabling us to evaluate information, work out 'what it means' and make choices to take care of ourselves.  In evolutionary terms it is the latest addition to a developing set of self preservation apparatus.  It is inevitable that such apparatus will one day ask the question 'what is the meaning of life?'
If you look at a tree over time it grows out of a seed, changes through the seasons, lives its life and the ages and dies.  It is nourished by the sun, wind and rain and produces offspring to follow in its path.  The tree never asks about the meaning of life.  It came in to being, existed in a state of being and then was gone.
'What is the meaning of life' is a question that arises from a meaning making machine.  The meaning making machine was put there to improve the chances of survival of its host.  By making meaning many great advantages accrue to humans over competing life forms.  Agriculture, farming, cooking, building and culture are some examples.  Once you give humans this device it does not stop there but goes on to seek to make meaning of everything.  It extends itself in to art, literature, music, mathematics and so on.  You know from your own mind that it never stops trying to make meaning.
Everyone will reach their own conclusions on this recurring question.  I overheard two wealthy men talking the other day.  In their conversation about exotic holidays and new bigger homes one of them says 'I am becoming depressed again as life seems to lack meaning for me.'  At the unfair end of the social scale there are people making a similar statement about their life.  Everyone living in this frantic world will have their version of this statement at some point in their life.
My own conclusion to the question is that life just 'is'.  Rather than chase the endless circular philosophers quest for understanding I align myself with the tree and let all the meaning making thoughts drift off me in to the wind.  Life just 'is'.

IN THE SHADE OF THE MIMOSA TREE

I am sitting here in the shade of The Mimosa Tree.
There is a gentle breeze, like soft silk, brushing against my cheek.  I am calm, at ease and drawing deeply on my breath.  As I exhale I relax further in to my contentment.  I have left the shouldistic world behind and float in the lightness of being.  The air is warm from the sun and cool from the shade.  My thoughts are heavy and keen in their efforts to protect me and now soft and weightless as I release them in to the breeze.
The leaves of the tree rustle.  Whispering hints on the true secrets of living.  Motionless but for the dance of leaf and branch with breeze.  The Mimosa Tree knows how to be in flow with the world.  I can feel it all around me as I dispel another thought in to the air.
There is an army of ideas charging on my peace.  A regiment set up to 'do more', a battalion marching on 'goals' and a platoon set about 'watching my back.'  For this moment I ignore them all, sit still and slowly breath out.
I am sitting here in the shade of The Mimosa Tree.