What is life?

This question came about in the midst of normal conversations over tea sessions. It is strange that I suddenly realised that people I hang around with these days talk about finding meaning in life, fighting inner demons and redefining their place on Earth. I guess that is a sign that I am growing older. What exactly is life? I guess it is not like the way we learn in Science class when we were in school that the definition of life is that a living thing is something that takes in energy, get rid of waste, respond to their environment, etc.

Biology aside, we want to know more than the fundamentals; beyond the definition and reading into the meaning of it. Most often than not, most of us question about our purpose, which in turn, looks into our past, present and future. But people around me agree that we should live for the present, like NOW. For me, the meaning of life is to be truly happy.

My question lies with our reaction towards people who are happy with life; contented, never questioning, they get by a day at a time. Do we ask ourselves if these people are kidding themselves or are they just refusing to see the cold hard reality of life and pretending to live in this whole make-believe fantasy "happy land" of their own?

I, somehow, figured happiness doesn't depend on anything that has or has not happened in the past nor does it depend on what might happen in the future. It is me deciding to be happy at this very moment, which leads us back to NOW.

After going through a few difficult times of my time, I realised the whole idea of "life is fair" is just a bloody illusion. Life is truly unfair but it is definitely not random. Bad things usually happen to forcefully slap us out of whatever stupor we are in at the time and we start questioning our beliefs. People usually don't change unless they feel sufficient pain to overcome their natural resistance to change. Change takes energy and nothing energizes like tragedy.

Life is a school. As we learn to improve or even learn to live life, the mistakes we make do not make permanent records. They only teaches us to improve. SO don't be too hard on yourselves.