I found out the meaning of life

We’ve always read a bedtime story to my daughter, even before she could say a word. It’s been a compulsory ritual, no matter how late it is or how tired we’ve felt.

What has always struck me the most was — and still is — how involved she gets with every story. Nowadays, now that she’s 7, stories are complex and characters intense. She lives every bit of thrill, excitement, and joy as if it were her own.

Yesterday, that got me thinking about the meaning of life.

I’ve been trying to figure it out forever, especially in the past few years, when I’ve been traveling intensely around the world, spending much time alone.

And yesterday, after reading to my daughter, I came to my own personal, perhaps temporary conclusion: that the meaning of life is simply living in the moment.

It sounds simple.

Too simple.

But that doesn’t have to make it any less true.

I thought about it and remembered that the most intense moments in my life were always accompanied by a profound state of connection between mind and body, in a way that I can only describe as being present.

It happened with the birth of my children. It happens when my newborn son looks at me and gifts me a smile. It happened a couple of days ago when my daughter did her ballet presentation and, with her eyes, found her proud father among the crowd, drawing a smile on her face.

And it happens when I play music. Not every time, not all the time, but often. And when it happens, all the possible meaning that life could have gets condensed into that instant in time, when everything is just perfect.

It turns out, then, that I’ve been living a meaningful life all along. And I wish you the same.

Here is my latest video performance, The Three Noctilunes, recorded in the beautiful Ateneum — a hub of intellectual and artistic history right in the heart of Madrid, my city. Click here to watch.

Have a nice and meaningful day,

Claudio.