I like James Taylor’s answer: “The secret of life is enjoying the passage of time.”
OK - I had to alter the question a little, but I think it still works. 
To rephrase the question:
What’s it all about?
On a musical forum, the answer must be:
The Hokey Cokey.
When I was younger, I thought that I needed an answer to existential questions. I discovered that the only answer that I really need is “yes”, which is an affirmation of Life. I try to help others whenever I can, and I try to remain at peace with myself. James Taylor’s lyric of enjoying the passage of time works for me as well.
The peace of God.
\
Larry
Meaning continually eludes me, so I tend to suspect there is none, although Walden’s answer hits a most fundamental chord; Buber comes to mind (but let’s please not examine that fellow too far; he puts me to sleep. Buber, that is, not Walden. Buber could have learned from Walden how to cut to the chase 
).
I think when it comes to life it’s more doable, if not better, to pursue meaningfulness rather than meaning.
You come to consciousness after not really remembering being born.
You have a childhood in which everything seems very powerful and strange.
You become an adult and face a few decades of constantly realizing you’re foolish and not yet an adult.
You start to wise up just as your body shows sure signs of decay and impending death.
Somewhere along the way you develop concepts of things you can’t sense and they become more powerful, somewhat superseding what you can sense.
You spend a few decades in decline then die. With any luck, you have some sort of resurrection or redemption that made it all worth it.
Along the way, you spend a lot of time in discourse, trying to understand everything I just stated. If you’re lucky, you will have experienced the most profound emotions of love, companionship and parental achievement (i.e. seeing your spawn grow and thrive).
Happy Easter or other Spring celebration to all.
The essence of life?
What one does with the people who have been entrusted to us for a mere moment or a lifetime, for each, a moment or a series of moments, is time in which we may in word or deed reflect that to which our hearts clings most dearly, and a time of the possibility for transformation.
pastorkeith
The sacrificing of virgins and the sending of their souls to baphomet…
/I keeed, I keeeed! 
You still affiliated with the Freemasons, eh.
I think the meaning of life depends on from what or whose perspective you are answering from, but it all comes down to the simple premise that we create that which exists, so we give life its meaning and that’s the essence of it.
Michael
Seriously.
I think as spiritual “beings,” we choose our circumstances before we enter the world.
I think that is more-or-less Jesus’ answer, too.
Conscious Evolution in the Atomic Drama Realm.
Are you a Religious Scientist or Christian Scientist? I’ve only ever heard this (and it even says that we chose our parents, our diseases, our spouses, etc before birth) from people in the various Mind Sciences.
I like this answer. I remembered Mother Teresa saying something along the lines of “Jesus is the meaning of life,” but I haven’t been able to find the quote.
I think the meaning of human life is to purge this planet of all this annoying life and beauty and replace it with a suffocating layer of concrete and plastic.
love and friendship.
OK, tonight’s better so here goes-
The meaning of life- love of God and family and usefullness to them
The human essence- just like all living things, feed, reproduce, survive
Without music though, it’s a wasteland…
To share it… basically… love.
…