It is meaning that receives purpose
and purpose that fills meaning.
Meaning is filled and refilled,
and purpose is emptied and re-emptied.
Purpose desires to fill,
meaning desires to be emptied.
Meaning is the emotion
that purpose cannot fill.
When meaning is most filled,
purpose is emptied
and must return to the beginning.
* * *
There is a tension at the heart of being: the pull between meaning and purpose. They are not the same, though they are often mistaken for each other. Purpose is the hand that moves; meaning is the space it touches. Purpose is the path; meaning is the shadow it casts.
Purpose seeks—always. It longs to act, to shape, to give, to build, to destroy, to do. It is kinetic, insatiable. It defines itself in motion. Purpose says, “This is what I am for.” And in saying so, it believes it understands itself.
But meaning is still. It does not seek. It receives. It absorbs what purpose gives it, but not without resistance. Meaning is not passive—it is patient. Where purpose wants to arrive, meaning wants to dissolve. Meaning does not point to anything else; it simply is.
Yet they are bound. Purpose needs meaning to justify its motion, and meaning needs purpose to give it form, if only temporarily. This is the paradox: meaning is filled by purpose, and purpose is emptied into meaning. But just as quickly, the inverse becomes true.
Meaning, once full, becomes too heavy to hold. It spills. And in the spilling, purpose is left empty, hollow, and must begin again.
Meaning, in its purest form, is emotion untranslatable into tasks. It is what remains when all purpose has been spent. It is the ache that purpose cannot heal, the beauty that function cannot replicate. Purpose may build a house, but only meaning can make it a home.
When meaning is most filled, when the soul swells with the inexpressible fullness of being—then purpose falters. Its direction becomes blurry. It has nothing left to prove. And so, it returns—not to a final rest, but to the beginning. Like breath returning to the lungs after silence.
This cycle is not a flaw in us. It is the rhythm of consciousness. To live is to swing between doing and understanding, between striving and surrendering. It is to know that action without meaning is empty, and that meaning without action is inert.
To live wisely is to let each fill and empty the other. Purpose will always desire to fill.Meaning will always desire to be emptied. And in their endless dance, we become.
* * *
Meaning, a vessel, ever poured,
Fills with the weight of emotion,
A tide that swells, then slips away,
To leave but a whispered notion.
Purpose, a flame that seeks to burn,
Longs for the form to guide its fire,
To fill, to claim, to leave its mark,
Yet never sated in desire.
Meaning fills, then empties fast,
A cycle none can end or break;
Purpose comes, and seeks to last,
But finds itself lost in the wake.
The flame must fade, the vessel drain,
In emptiness, they meet again,
For meaning yearns to be fulfilled,
And purpose must return – refilled.
They dance together, pull and strain,
A fleeting balance, joy and pain.
Purpose seeks to fill the void,
While meaning longs to be destroyed.
And when meaning fills to the brim,
Purpose fades to start again,
A perfect loop of loss and gain,
Where nothing ends, yet all begins.
* * *
Once, in a place where thoughts and feelings intertwined like threads of a tapestry, there was a quiet understanding between two forces: Meaning and Purpose. They had always been linked, each shaping the other, yet each driven by their own desires.
Purpose was a restless, unyielding force. It was forever reaching out, striving to fill the emptiness around it. It was the energy behind every task, every ambition, every endeavor—a constant push toward something greater, something more. But no matter how much Purpose filled, it could never be satisfied. It was a hollow vessel, always searching for the next thing to fill its depths.
Meaning, on the other hand, was a different kind of force. It was not driven by the need to fill but by the desire to be emptied. Meaning was emotion, the intangible essence that gave life its depth. It was the joy and the sorrow, the love and the loss—the feeling that transformed every action into something more than just a task. Meaning needed to be experienced, to be poured out, to be felt. When it was full, it was heavy, rich with the weight of every emotion, but when it was emptied, it left a profound stillness, a sense of quiet fulfillment.
The dance between these two forces was constant. When Meaning was filled to the brim, Purpose would find itself empty, as if it had spent all its energy and could go no further. And so, Purpose would return to the beginning - to the place where it could refill, where it could once again set out on its endless journey.
But the cycle was never truly complete. The emptiness that Purpose faced could never be truly filled, for it was not the filling of Purpose that gave it meaning. It was the emptiness itself that allowed Meaning to take its place. And so, the two would continue, forever intertwined—one seeking to fill, the other to be emptied—an endless ebb and flow of purpose and meaning, each relying on the other to exist.
In this delicate balance, they found their harmony, knowing that neither could truly exist without the other, and that the cycle, though endless, was what gave life its depth and beauty.
* * *
In a world where the tides of emotion ebbed and flowed, there lived a vessel—a delicate, ever-holding thing. It was shaped with care, smooth as polished stone, its sides worn by the touch of time. It was built to carry something that could never quite be contained. The vessel was not empty, for even in silence, it vibrated with the weight of meaning.
Meaning was a curious thing, ever-present but always fleeting. It filled the vessel to the brim with its force, a swelling tide that threatened to break free. It was both a gift and a curse. For as soon as the vessel was full, the weight of meaning would slip away, leaving behind only a faint, elusive whisper. The vessel knew, in some quiet part of its heart, that meaning could never stay, could never settle in one place for too long.
And then there was purpose.
Purpose was a flame that had never been allowed to burn too brightly. It sought a form to hold its fire, to give it direction and reason. It sought the vessel. In the silence of the night, when the vessel was nearly empty, purpose would creep in, filling the cracks left behind by the retreating meaning. It came with an urgency, seeking to carve itself into the vessel’s shape, to claim its space. But the vessel was never quite right for it—too full of longing, too full of emptiness to hold the flame for long.
Purpose burned, fiercely at first, eager to leave a mark, to change something, to give something its meaning. Yet, it always found itself fading, the fire flickering and dimming in the empty air. The vessel, still swaying with meanings faint whispers, would drain the flame as if it had never been there. And in that absence, purpose would slip away, like a spark caught by the wind.
And so, the design cycle continued.
The vessel filled, emptied, filled again. Purpose came and went in the same rhythm—burning bright, then fading into the void. And as the vessel wept the last remnants of meaning, purpose would return once more, only to be lost again.
They danced together in a fragile balance, neither truly belonging to the other. They were both seekers, both bound to a never-ending loop of loss and gain. Meaning was the tide, pulling the vessel into depths unknown, and purpose was the flame, burning too hot to ever remain contained. Yet, even as they parted, they knew they could never exist without each other.
The vessel, in its quiet way, yearned to be filled—to be emptied—to be made whole again. And purpose, though it longed to last, could never be sated.
But in the space between, there was a truth: nothing ever ends. It merely begins again, in the ebb and flow of meaning, the dance of purpose. Forever intertwined. Forever lost. Forever found.
* * *
Bridging the gap between divine omniscience
and mortal awareness.
Find your truth. Know your mind. Follow your heart. Love eternal will not be denied. Discernment is an integral part of self-mastery. You may share this post on a non-commercial basis, the author and URL to be included. All rights reserved. Copyright © 2025 C.G. Garant.
