Turning Pages

 

As the years end is approaching, I love to review the books I've read to reflect on how they impacted me.  There are a few books that stand out from 2021, but I'd love to share about this one in particular: Man's Search for Meaning by Viktor Frankl. 

Viktor Frankl was a Viennese psychiatrist who survived Nazi internment camps. He utilized his knowledge of how the mind works as a means of personal survival, reflection, and encouragement to others in the most horrific of times. During his time in the camps, and afterward, he reflects and studies about how man can find meaning in the midst of suffering, and the reality that suffering is inevitable in life. I found this book to be so poignant- it is such a moving examination of how to think about our lives and find meaning and purpose. He posits that meaning and purpose are found outside of the self: that the outward focus towards loving and caring for others can carry you not only through suffering, but in the monotony of daily life.

Two quotes that struck me were:

"The truth- that Love is the ultimate and highest goal to which man can aspire. Then I grasped the meaning of the greatest secret that human poetry and human thought and belief have to impart: The salvation of man is through love and in love."

"Those who have a 'why' to live can bear with almost any 'how." 

As we prepare for 2022 ("2020, too" 👀) how can we shift our focus outward to find meaning? xx