Consciousness is something completely different from other characteristics of matter such as mass, charge, structure, etc. While our consciousness seems to depend on the matter in our brains, we cannot detect anything unusual about our brains that would indicate why consciousness is attached to it. Assuming that nothing exists except for interacting particles, somehow within every particle there is something that provides the basis for consciousness. Complex conscious activity may require highly complex structures such as our brains to occur, but the basis of consciousness must be present in matter itself. Our minds are simply one manifestation of a universal phenomena.
People are examples of one way to organize the consciousness in matter.
Not only is consciousness a universal property of matter, it is the primary property of matter. Yes, consciousness is primary. Matter sprang from consciousness. In the beginning was the word, and the word was pinging around the inside some sort of Mind, and it generated the physical universe. So, to summarize, the meaning of life is linked to the workings of the mind from which the universe sprang.