I am in Dublin, just a few days before St. Patrick’s Day. There are large groups of young people, mostly male, roaming the city.

Some are school kids who have an adult leading the way, the teens following behind like ducklings in their black puffer jackets.

The older groups are mostly clad in black puffer jackets too. But they have an aimless feel to them. They stand around in clumps, not sure where to go or what to do. Often in the evening, they gather around the entrance to a crowded bar. Eventually, one may peel off and head in a certain direction, any direction, and the others follow along like a flock of birds that suddenly found itself a leader. Soon they stop again on another street corner. Dubliners rush around them, paying no attention.

A leaderless group can lead to trouble. We learned that in this week’s Torah portion, when Moses disappeared onto the top of Mount Sinai, writing down the Torah while God dictated, leaving the people at the foot of the mountain.

Alone, bereft, they turned to Moses’s brother Aaron. But Aaron was a peacemaker, not a leader. He appeased the people by making them a golden calf to worship. But this was not in God’s plan.

Unhappiness and death ensued (see Exodus chapters 32 and 33 for details) followed by a new calm, during which Moses asked God to lead both him and the people.

It was a pivotal moment, in which Moses acknowledged that he needed more from God. He wanted God to step forward and take over, at least for a time. He wanted God to teach him, to show him the way. He wanted more.

Often, we too find ourselves wanting more. Satiated one day, we are hungry again the next. Sometimes we don’t know exactly what it is that we want. Only that we want something.

The youth crowding the streets of Dublin want more than their mundane lives. They want excitement, fun, joy even. But they don’t know how to create it for themselves, so they stand around, aimless, waiting.

They will stay for the St. Patrick’s Day parade on Monday, get roaring drunk, and hopefully stumble home safe and sound. But I doubt they will be fulfilled.

There are paths to finding meaning, joy, and satisfaction that these restless young people have not discovered. I wish I could tell them to stop looking. Stop trying. Instead, simply be.

Listen to the music spilling out into the street. Smell the scent of fish and chips coming from a nearby storefront. Snuggle into your warm jacket and feel the cold night air on your face. Don’t wait for life to happen. Feel it happening to you in this moment.

It is said that when Moses angrily hurled down the stone tablets that God had inscribed with the Ten Commandments, they broke into many millions of tiny pieces, a fine dust that God gently blew until it covered the entire world.

Wherever you go, whatever you do, a grain of that dust settles on you. It goes where you go. It was inscribed by God and it is a reminder that you are not alone, that God travels with you, that your life has value, and that meaning can be found wherever you go.