Things that bring meaning to your life?

[Melooon]

This is a simple topic to appreciate things that make it worth being on this planet, big and small. Sometimes there a bad days, or bad months OR bad years.. but there's always something worth hanging on for. What brings meaning to your life?

For me a few things are:

• Making things - Art, websites, bits of code, as long as I have something to make!
• Cooking - Cooking is fun and eating really good food is always worth living for.
• Walking and seeing places - I cant think of a time Iv ever been unhappy on a hike!

[wris]

Everything on this list!

Walking and seeing places - I cant think of a time Iv ever been unhappy on a hike!

What's the best place you've ever hiked? There are some lovely places near(ish) me. I think Cannock Chase is the most well known, but it's still pretty close to civilisation.

[Melooon]

What's the best place you've ever hiked?

Oo thats a hard question; I think Yosemite might have been the best overall hike, its got EVERYTHING. In terms of more local places I really like The Burren National Park.. but like most places in Ireland (and the UK) its just a bit small; Sheep's Head was one I did recently which was great too! I like the feeling of walking along a ridge or plateau in the sky.

[Memory]

I am melonking all over the place currently which gives me meaning.

[MrsMoe]

For this, I have two answers:

- Art and fiction! I believe that the stories we tell each other are what keep up going in life and find emotional catharsis. I've struggled with loneliness throughout most of my life, but my favorite pieces of media have always given me something to relate to and see myself in. It's a major reason as to why I became a screenwriter. I want to make something that'll help others feel seen the same way my favorite stories have.

- My boyfriend! We're long-distance and he currently lives in America, but he showed up in my life just when I needed him. He's the most kind, affectionate, and gentle person I've ever met and he can't get enough of me (for some reason). For years, he's been listening to me whenever I need him and convincing me that I'm a better person than I've been led to believe. I honestly owe my life to him.

[tarocchilla]

For me a few things are:

• Making things - Art, websites, bits of code, as long as I have something to make!
• Cooking - Cooking is fun and eating really good food is always worth living for.
• Walking and seeing places - I cant think of a time Iv ever been unhappy on a hike!

I feel like these things bring me joy too, but i must add...

• My friends: they just make the world better
• Cats: i love them okay:dunno: like if you ever had a cat this is self explanatory
• Appreciating the small beautiful thing in life...taking your time to appreciate a bug, or a cool building on your way home, or a kind stranger that helps you bring a heavy grocery bag...makes my day brighter and living easier, i think people should learn how to appreciate little details more, because they make life so interesting!

[gamemaster98]

This is a simple topic to appreciate things that make it worth being on this planet, big and small. Sometimes there a bad days, or bad months OR bad years.. but there's always something worth hanging on for. What brings meaning to your life?

For me a few things are:

• Making things - Art, websites, bits of code, as long as I have something to make!
• Cooking - Cooking is fun and eating really good food is always worth living for.
• Walking and seeing places - I cant think of a time Iv ever been unhappy on a hike!

In my case, the following are the main things that make me feel happy and that life is worth living:

• Sports - Running, exercising, swimming etc. make me feel more inlined with nature. These activities make me forget about
       all the modern problems a human may encounter in these contemporary times
• Friendships - Having someone to talk to and with whom you feel connected feels great. We don't even have to talk daily, updating
         each other once a week with what we have been up to is more than enough for me since I do not have friends that could
         be called "regulars" in my life.
• Coding - I have recently started my coding journey and although I'm not that great at it I'm doing my best to improve every day.
         The feeling of creating something by writing on the computer is incomparable.

[dotmidi]

Some things that bring me to life are

• Baking - very yummy! not a good chef but I am a GREAT baker (mainly cause u cant rlly mess up baking ahah :omg:k:smile:
• Music - All kindsa genres! Punk, New-Wave, and Post Punk are my faves though i am really into goth and punk historyy
• Fashion - i LOVE to dress up probably my favorite way to express myself, always puts me in a good mood hehe

[Frost Sheridan]

this is a great question! there are a few things in particular that bring meaning to my life:

• my inflatable dragons! i've always felt like my life's meaning is to provide a good home for inflatables and pool toys, especially dragons. they provide great companionship and are genuinely some of my best friends. (here's a list of all my dragons!)
• keeping old technology alive and in use. despite what the tech industry wants you to believe, older computers, PDAs, game consoles, media players/formats, etc. can still be just as useful and fun as when they were new, so i make it a point to continue to use and maintain them whenever possible.
• making stuff! a couple other people in this thread have expressed this as well. the feeling of turning thoughts into reality by creating new artwork, programs, websites, etc. is unmatched by anything else.

[SilkSkull]

Just a quick list
 -Nujabes
 -History
 -Coding
 -Video games
 -Cel shading
 -Old ads
 -The old pepsi cans that are sometimes in 80s movies
 -Snow
 -This forum
 -Music
 -my pillow

[Memory]

Imagination - when real life gets lame, it's nice to be able to retreat to a place where you have complete control. I'm a huge introvert who would rather be alone most of the time, so it's important to be able to keep good company with myself instead of always dwelling on what's going on outside.

Animation and Puppets - this is possibly a weird one, but I'm really passionate about traditional, hand drawn and stop motion animation (and even CG animation that emulates the look of those styles), and Jim Henson or Stan Winston style puppetry and practical effects. Every time I see a new film made like that, it makes me feel a little better inside.

[Cobra!]

Here are some things that give meaning to my life:

• Old Tech - I love old tech in almost every form, and want to keep them preserved and working. I want to bring home broken VCRs, Laserdiscs, etc., and get them repaired. I want this stuff to last as long as humanly possible, and if I had the money, make more of them and keep the dream alive.
• Languages - I am largely passionate about the Scots and Gaelic languages, and like Old Tech, want them kept alive and thriving. I'm also learning Italian and Neapolitan, and want to learn so many more. I have so much fun immersing myself in other languages and their communities online.
• Film and Video games - I love immersing myself in a good film or game, and forget about the real world for a bit. I also make my own games, which can be stressful, but rewarding at the end when I see people enjoy what I make, you know?
• Programming/Writing - Generally just enjoy making stuff, feels like I'm doing something productive with life. (Which I guess is internalised Capitalism, but we probably shouldn't get into that)

keeping old technology alive and in use. despite what the tech industry wants you to believe, older computers, PDAs, game consoles, media players/formats, etc. can still be just as useful and fun as when they were new, so i make it a point to continue to use and maintain them whenever possible.

Right? I got my Windows 98 laptop connected to the internet, and sometimes visit this forum with it. Not to mention old tech is the best way to experience old media.

making stuff! a couple other people have expressed this here as well, and i totally agree with them. the feeling of turning thoughts into reality by creating new artwork, programs, websites, etc. is unmatched by anything else.

I know exactly what you mean! I also love working with other people. I like to participate in game jams and art trade events. They're perfect for experimenting with new stuff, learning new skills or generally improving your craft.

[Cele]

I've definitely been in a bad year recently... But I've thought it's stories. The ability to experience so many wonderful tales, ancient and new. I also love hoarding information of the most random stuff

(Since somebody mentioned hiking,) I live in a region with many hills since it was a mountain range millions of years ago (see, a random fact). This year I decided I want climb to the peak of as many of them as I can. I climbed Vuokatinvaara last autumn. Now I just need to wait for the snow to melt (the paths could be slippery). The scenery is breathtaking even though they're not mountains.

But family and friends are the most important aren't they. Couldn't survive without them.

[tokoissick]

TINY JARS!!!
let me show you!

silly but i have just started collecting them! and its so much fun

[Rosaria Delacroix]

Writing is my big one- I wouldn't be the person that I am today, if I didn't write. It's been my bedrock, the foundation that I anchor into when everything else in my life is in shambles: no matter who leaves, what injuries occur, what things go catastrophically sideways: writing has been there for me to lean into, and rely on.

It could be as simple as writing in a diary, take on the form of collaborative creative writing with friends, or most often, burrowing down solo into the comfort of a story you've been scrawling like a mad man for days, huddled into a quiet corner of your room, or the silence of a bench in a forgotten building.

I know myself through my writing- and it's come to define me, in huge part. I'm a writer. I write. The written word is always available to me- through the relative luxury of my mechanical keyboard or fountain pens, to even just scratching away with a stub of a pencil from middle school I found rolling around in a cupboard and a post it note filched from an old schoolbag.

It brings me deep comfort, and it's been an important tool in processing and making sense of myself, the world around me- in the context of trauma therapy, but also my own emotional deep dives and excursions, particularly while writing poetry, and in analyzing the themes and motifs that kept bubbling up to the surface in my larger body of work.

It's a lifeline. It's brought comfort on days when I've been too waylaid by my genetic disorder to even be physically able to draw because I cannot move my wrist and arm excessively without further causing damage- the brilliance of writing is how low or high effort the preparation to engage in it can be, depending on my relative energy levels and capacity.

It's a means of self expression, but also self soothing- it's the best thing that I ever picked up, and I'm so, so glad that young me didn't allow external voices from terrible adults to discourage me away from it: that I was stubborn enough to keep scribbling away on legal sized pages and in the backs of school notebooks, even when I had books shredded to pieces in front of me or was berated for 'wasting time.'

It's been one of the very few pleasures that've been a constant in my life: I love writing, and it's so empowering to know that it can't be taken away from me- whether through others' judgement, or my own body's limitations from disability. Even if I can't move my wrists to even type on a keyboard sometimes from the pain, I can still daydream about what I'd like to write when the episode subsides: and that's wonderful 'pre-writing' stuff as well, so that you come to the blank page ready to rock and roll. Writing rocks.