Different people interpret or explain this topic differently depending on what it means to them. Meaningful life is defined as having a purpose, significance, fulfillment and satisfaction of life, Lopez ed (2002). I relate meaningful life with the picture of this bird feeding these sparrows. When meaningful life has to do with purpose, i see this bird flying everyday trying feed these sparrows ,the purpose of this mother lie in growing her sparrows until they can be independent to go look for their own food. I believe this bird found her life meaningless if she can not fly to feed her kids. if this bird can die all hope of these sparrows will go away and their life won’t be meaningful, as they won’t have a mother to feed them but at the moment because they are being fed, they’re all living meaningful life as well as their mother.

Relating this to my clinical experience , looking at my patients laying in hospital beds not fulfilling their purpose in life makes me think that illness takes away their meaning of life which is their purpose in life, goal achievement, happiness, satisfaction of life and fulfillment. Even though they cannot do what they want because of being ill but some of them still have a hope that their life will be meaningful again one day, even their families always hope for better. They cannot work for their children or families, they can not provide like this bird in this picture, some of them cannot even take care of themselves as much as they live meaningless life but they still have hope, there comes death which takes away everything they hoped for. When death comes it takes away all the hope from their family members.
Some family members has to adapt to the life of living without their pillars and bread winners. Death is defined as permanent end of life. When life ends there is no more turning back. Seeing my patients passing on taught me that it is very important to appreciate our loved ones while they are still alive. Seeing my patients family members loosing their loved ones makes me think of ethics, when you put yourself in someones shoes and realizing that living a meaningful life whilst you still can is very important because when death comes you will be sad but not having regrets because you would have done your best. As much as it’s looks like as health professional we are now used to death but the truth is we will never stop feeling the pain especially if we loose the patients we have been treating for a long time.

References
Lopez, ed by CR .Synder, Shane J, Baurneister RF, Vohs K O (2002) The pursuit of meaningfulness in life ” handbook of positive psychology oxford Univ. 608-618