This is a world of substance, a world where most things have weight. Most things can be evaluated by some measurement, like truck weighing scales, a gram scale, a measuring tape, a report card, a temperature gage, a barometer or some other form of calculation. This is a world obsessed with taking measure. Success is calculated by income, or twitter followers, or friends on face book, or number of letters after the name, or size of office, or neighborhood. It is nearly impossible to move through life without being measured.

In making our way with career and family, worth and value is often measured in numbers. It might be the number in our bank account, the number of bedrooms in the house, the number of children, promotions, vacations, cars etc. There are some benefits in being able to take measure and know that in the game of life we are meeting the challenges. But the real experience of living is in all the things that can’t be measured.

How do you weigh the pleasure from the scent of a gardenia outside the window? How do you measure a lovers caress? How do you calculate the joy in the sound of little feet skipping up the stairs? How do you weigh the taste of a perfectly ripe and juicy peach? How do you measure the sound of children giggling in the surf? How do you measure the smell of hamburgers on a grill? How do you measure the birth of a child? How do you measure cool water after a desert hike, a full moon sparkling off a canyon river, the call of a wren, or the song of a whale?

How do you measure a failed relationship? What does the pain from miscarriage weigh? How heavy is the burden of unemployment. What is the length of anxiety? How many tears does it take to cry out the loss of a spouse? What is the radius of Alzheimer’s? How much does child abuse cost over a lifetime? What is the cost of suicide? What is the diameter of substance abuse? Does divorce have a definitive sum?

The experience of life can not be quantified. The measure of a life well lived can not be counted in dollars, children, degrees of higher learning, or accomplishments in career. Success, as determined by social norms means little at the end of a life. Lives of great success have ended in suicide and misery. The real measure of life isn’t even in the number of good deeds, or great friend’s one has. Many people have devoted their life to charitable works with heavy miserable hearts. It is the experience of living fully awake to all life offers and in integrity with ones self that brings value on the journey of life.