Mostly people experience new places by their generic airports.

The next deeper level of experiences are the tourist hotels and the tourist sights.

Rarely does it go further.

Now even in the place where you have lived a long time, if you have a car, you might not be as intimate with your place as you could be.

The last 16 months, we’ve been living for months at a time on every continent, away from the tourist traps and without a car or motorized anything. Every day we jog and walk and this is how we get to know the place where we are living.

Where cars can isolate you from the weather, we get to know the temperature from directly experiencing the winds, the clouds, the sun, the moon. We get to know the terrain of the streets and sidewalks. We become part of the environment for the local birds, the stray dogs and cats and other critters. We develop relationships with the street musicians and artists, the women with children begging, the disabled beggars. The scammers and drug dealers – “hashish?, marijuana?” The street vendors and parking attendants and shop keepers, the security guys, the dumpster recyclers, the street cops, the park maintenance staff and the other folks who walk or jog every day.

We get to know a place by how it smells – the good and the bad.

Every place has its depth. But there is no shortcut to seeing it or experiencing it. It’s layer after layer of revealed patterns – one experience taking you to the next experience. There is a ‘why’ and a ‘reason’ that keeps moving one deeper and deeper into the essence of a place. The long-time residents don’t usually reveal these secrets, until they trust that you can understand and appreciate what they reveal.

It is about love. “Love is the bridge between you and everything” – Rumi. Love is what takes it all in. Love is what connects the people with the things and the places. To explore a place, again from Rumi, “Your heart knows the way. Run in that direction.”

A meaningful existence. Evolving. Loving. Contributing.

There is not much meaning in daily maintenance. Get up. Get cleaned up. Eat something. Work. Eat something. Work. Eat something, relax, go to bed. Repeat. Eventually life is over.

The three lines of work – which show up in religions, philosophies and spiritual paths – provide meaning, when maintenance fails in that regard.

Another way of expressing these three areas of placing our attention is:

1. Inner work. Staying present. Letting go. Mindfulness. The opposite of being bored in each moment.
2. Relationships. Can we deepen our love and compassion each time we interact with another being? This is the second line of work.
3. Service. When the situation arises, can we step up and make a contribution toward relieving general suffering.

Ram Dass expressed these three lines this way: Love, Serve, Remember.

Daily life maintenance can occupy a huge amount of our attention. However, it can be overlaid in every moment by work on at least one of the three lines of work.

A huge obstacle to meaningful existence is what several have called the ten thousand distractions. These are mind moments where our attention is grabbed by something that has nothing to do with the three lines of work. It could be watching TV, or getting high, or consuming, playing games, or Facebook, or gossiping, or… (the rest of the list of 10,000). Can you catch yourself in a moment and ask, “Is this a distraction from a meaningful life?” Becoming aware of a distraction can be the beginning of turning a life toward more meaning.