We, on my job, have reached the point at which either and all of us judges could retire. Everyone of us is over fifty-five years. Some have figured their retirement date based on the monthly retirement benefit to be had. Others have fixed their point of retirement based on when the kids will finish college or when the mortgage will be paid off.

I asked one colleague who had announced his retirement about the number of years he had worked on the job. He responded, "Twenty-six years. Twenty-six wasted years of my life."

I was sad for him as I considered the amount of time he had given to his employment. As I pondered his response, I began to consider more than the time. Were there no events on the job that gave him joy? Did he not hear a case and write a decision that had a positive impact on the lives of a family? Was his relationship with me meaningless? It wasn't just time on a job. Twenty-six years of his life involved activities, events, and people. Was it all wasted?

How do you see your life?

If you take a look at and dissect a segment of your life in the past--say, one month last year, you can see life from different aspects. Each aspect can be used to describe life. The nature of life can be described in terms of what you are doing or what is happening to you.

Life as the union of the forces of the universe. Life is the manifestation of forces of nature coming together as one being. You are that unique being created by the physical force experienced in body, the intellectual force experienced in mind, and the spiritual force experienced in soul.

You had nothing to do with the forces of the universe coming together to be you. You could not have had a role because you did not exist until the union occurred. You can, however, control the impact and interaction of these forces in your life. You operate the dials that determine your emphasis on body, mind, and soul. You control the balance of the physical, mental, and emotional aspects of your life. Because it is tangible, the physical aspect of life more readily gets our attention.

Life as time. Life is that segment of eternity during which your soul, mind, and body join to interact with the universe. Viewing life as time enables you to quantify it, measure its passing, and treat it as a commodity to be traded on the open market. As a time commodity, we are inclined to treat life as though the supply is plentiful. We live as though "there is more where that came from."

Life as a system of options and decisions. At each instant of your existence you have an option. At the basic level the option is to continue what you are doing or to do something else. The decision-making becomes more complex as the number of options available to you increases.

At the basic level of option and decision, you are in complete control. One of the options is to relinquish your control to circumstances or to someone else. Even if you choose to relinquish control, you are still in control. In the next instant you can choose to retake control and no longer allow circumstances to dictate to you or to let another person decide for you.

Life as a chain of events. Your events of today are linked to those of yesterday. Even though you may have begun today with the idea of a fresh start, today's circumstances have a historical connection to yesterday. The events of your life are linked whether you look at them day-by-day, year-by-year, or second-by- second.

An event is the set of circumstances in which you find yourself. The set includes the orientation points used by psychiatrists of time, place, person, and things. Each set includes a segment of your life. It does not matter the length. It involves a physical location. There will be a component which can be expressed in terms of other people. that expression can be that you are alone--that is, there are no other people. Finally, objects, including living things other than people, will play a role.

Events are linked together by one or more of the set components. It cannot happen that all four elements are distinct and exclusive so long as you are involved. With your involvement, there is connection to a past event and a future one. There must always be a transitional connection from one event to another.

Events can occur over which you do not exercise control. That is to say, you may find your self in a set of circumstances that you cannot alter.

On the other hand, there are times when you control the setting. You choose the time, the place, the people, and the things that will be the circumstances of your event.

Life as a network of relationships. Every element of your being can be expressed in terms of your relationship with people, places, and things. The moment of your conception, you established a relationship. Throughout your life relationships are formed, and you continue to create them until you die.

There are relationships in which you are involved over which you had no control. Your biological connection with family is the primary category of such relationships. Another is your association with a particular ethnic group of people or your connection to a gender group.

Other relationships can be of your own choosing or could be out of your control. Your neighbors or your coworkers are examples of such relationships. If you live in a particular location and someone moves into the house next door to you, you have neighbors that are not of your own choosing. If, on the other hand, you do the moving, you can choose who your neighbors will be. Similarly, if you are working on a job where the human resources department will be hiring your colleagues, you will likely have no choice in who will be part of your work team. If you are doing the hiring or if you are seeking a job, you will have some say in who will be your colleague.

Finally, there are relationships over which you exercise complete control--friendships and social partners.

Life as a collection of activities. Life is the sum of what you do between birth and death. Your being is heightened by your doing. You will get the most out of life by acting with body, mind, and soul. You have complete control over what you do.

Your body, with the instinct for survival, will seek to extend life in this physical realm as long as possible. Your mind, on the other hand, understands that your time here on earth is limited. It knows mortality. Because you understand that just to be born and then to die is meaningless, your mind reflects on what happens in between to find some value. Meanwhile, there is a spiritual force operating within your soul that concerns itself with connection--connection to others, connection to the universe, and connection with the power of eternity. The soul wants to feel life.

This week's message on making the moment meaningful is taken from my newly developed material on the subject. I welcome and invite your comments on its value to you.

The message next week will be on HUMAN DOING VERSUS HUMAN BEING.

Do you have thoughts, feelings, and/or experiences about meaningfulness in your life that you are willing to share with me? Maybe you have a question about meaningfulness. I use the information and questions to develop other messages. Write to dana@danalamon.com.

Please share this week's message with someone you care about who can benefit from it.