Purpose

We shall not cease from exploration
And the end of all our exploring
Will be to arrive where we started
And know the place for the first time.
Through the unknown, unremembered gate
When the last of earth left to discover
Is that which was the beginning;
At the source of the longest river
The voice of the hidden waterfall
And the children in the apple-tree
Not known, because not looked for
But heard, half-heard, in the stillness
Between two waves of the sea.
Quick now, here, now, always—
A condition of complete simplicity
(Costing not less than everything)
And all shall be well and
All manner of thing shall be well
When the tongues of flame are in-folded
Into the crowned knot of fire
And the fire and the rose are one.

from T.S. Elliot "The four quatrains" from part 4 "the little gidding.

I have, and perhaps you do as well, continued life's journey in a search for meaning. Looking for truth, and purpose in the present and perhaps the future. But I have learned as TS Eliot so eloquently states is that we are really looking to explain and understand and find meaning in our pasts. To know it, to truly understand it for the first time.

And in that understanding ( or lack of same) we find a deeper truth.

Whether we "know" it or not, we cannot change where we started. We cannot change the past.

Which brings us back to the present.

And in our new knowledge "All shall be well and all manner of things shall be well"

Particularly if we can merge the fire of our past with the rose of our present.

..into one