Experience

Some of the highest abilities life has gained center around survival. While slowly adapting to the environment better (a process of evolution), life began to experience nature. Life began to love its nature, appreciate it, learn about it, feel it deeply with emotions, and dream about its future. As living things ourselves, we have an infinity of things to experience, and in many ways.

The experience of life...what allows us to take in information about the wonder of nature. Everyday, we see the sun bless the Earth with a brilliant light which gives us life. Even though this happens everyday, it is so beautiful and wonderful, it seems to me to be a miracle. And all the other different kinds of experiences we go through are miracles in themselves. How could nature, seemingly inanimate, give rise to the world we are apart of? Look at what millions of years of evolution has done. It has given nature the ability to be aware of itself, to feel pleasure and happiness, to feel love and appreciation, and to understand. With these we are able to preserve the future of life and nature...we understand that it is something beautiful, and we all desire a world of peace and harmony. This is why every single person out there is making a good, honest living, always striving for greater success, and forming loving relationships with others. They are carrying on this great experience of life!

Knowledge

The thing that intrigues me most about the experience of life is knowledge and understanding. We have the ability to understand how nature and life work (scientific studies). We also have intuition and wisdom, which guide us through our personal lives. This is information that helps us through our careers and relationships with others. It is not observable or provable like science. I believe it is about discovering meaning in life and about how everything fits together. However, it seems that in the real world,  we find some differences in the importance of science and wisdom. While people are busy trying to make a living, they of course need an education to succeed. But this desire to succeed sometimes causes people to overlook the wisdom that life and nature are beautiful. Scientific study becomes a task rather than an enjoyment of nature's beauty. Learning can only be fun if students see nature and life as full of interest and wonder, not just information to be memorized.

Emotion

Another thing that I love about experience is our ability to love and appreciate. Life possesses emotions which allow us to make meaningful connections with things in nature like other lives. The love of life and nature are, to me, ultimate happiness. The ability to appreciate the beauty of nature, the care of friends, and to need another person to carry on a species is wonderful. Love of life is extremely precious to any living thing. For human beings, the love of nature is what guides our thirst for knowledge, our motivation to explore, our interest to advance, our desire to socialize and civilize, and will to live in some cases. It is our emotions that allow us to see the beauty of nature, and allow us to gain interest in studying and celebrating it! Our ability to see and love nature is the ultimate experience!

Happiness

Love of life and nature is what true happiness is all about. But the complex nature of them breed conflict. Economic and social problems like poverty and bad relationships cause people to think of life as some sort of chase or competition for happiness or success. Too much time, energy, and attention is given to their troubles, and many forget about the miracle of life and the beauty of nature. They are always thinking that their life could be better. Dreams about success are OK; they allow us to excel in life. But our happiness should not suffer from that. Now it is arguable that everybody has their own definition of happiness, and that some find comfort taking a walk through the park while others like making money. But I am not talking about specific things that make us happy, I am talking about the meaning of happiness. It must have a universal meaning because we all know the feeling of it, can tell when someone else is feeling it, and know that it is something positive.

Since we all can agree that happiness is a positive, rather than negative feeling of joy or pleasure, we can ask, how do things make us happy? How is it that we experience something, and find it intellectually or emotionally enjoyable? Why is it that some can watch a sunset and be happy and satisfied, while others, well, need some more? First off, biologically, life responds best to novel, out of the ordinary stimuli. We like new things because they are more interesting than something we are well acquainted with. If there was a rainbow outside every morning, who would stop to look at it? The type of experiences and how you view them play a vital role. A child can lose someone very close to him, but can grow up to either appreciate and feel happy around people or feel helpless and isolated from them. Every experience is worthwhile in every case, be it positive or negative. But if this isn't your belief, life can become an extremely sad experience. You can view the fact that we all die as a sad part of life, or you can view it as a long-awaited and well deserved rest.

Here is where we draw the line between being happy and being fulfilled. A fulfilling life is always a happy life, but a happy life is not always fulfilling. Someone who is always happy may not feel satisfied with their accomplishments, but someone who is fulfilled is not only satisfied, but happy. A fulfilling life is one that is filled with happiness and sadness, so that one can appreciate the joy when it comes. It is one that values the mere experience of living. It is one without many regrets or too much time given to troubling situations. It is one that celebrates and loves every experience about life and nature themselves.

Here is a recipe for life. The ingredients are easy to get a hold of and the procedure is simple.

Many people say "This is the first day of the rest of your life" "Live life to the fullest" "Live each day as if it was your last" Life is simply a celebration of nature around us. Love and happiness aren't goals, they are ways of life!