Tuedays with Morrie

Morriefied!

That's how I characterize what I felt after finally reading the phenomenal Tuesdays with Morrie. It's a sad book, yes, so many issues. I have to put it off a week before finally mustering the courage to put my thoughts and feelings into writing. And you only get that clarity when you are not emotionally burdened. Which makes now a very good time.

Needless to say, it is a very moving piece. So let me just write here bits and pieces of the book that I want to commit to memory:

About the World
"The most important thing in lide is to learns to give out love, and let it come in."

About Feeling Sorry for Yourself
"...I don't allow myself any more self-pity than that. A little each morning, a few tears, and that's all."

About Regrets
"... we're involved in trillions of little acts just to keep going. So we don't get into the habit of standing back and looking at our lives and saying, Is that all? Is this all I want? Is something missing?"

About Death
"Learn how to die, and you learn how to live."

"Death ends a life not a relationship."

About Family
" Love each other or perish." "This is part of what a family is about, not just love, but letting others know there's someone who is watching out for them. "

About Children
"There is no experience like having children. You cannot do it with a friend. You cannot do it with a lover. If you want the experience of having complete responsiibility for another human being, and to learn how to love and bond in the deepest way, then you should have children."

About Emotions
"...detachment doesn't mean you don't let the experience penetrate you. On the contrary, you let it penetrate you fully. That's how you are able to leave it."

About the Fear of Aging
" We all yearn in some way to return to those days when we were completely taken care of - unconditional love, unconditional attention. Most of us didn't get enough."

" Aging is not just decay, you know. It's growth. It's more than the negative way you're going to die, it's also the positive that you understand that you're going to diem and that you live a better life because of it."

"You have to find what's good and true and beautiful in your life as it is now. Looking back makes you competitive. And, age, is not a competitive issue."

About Money
" Remember what I said about finding a meaningful life? ...Devote yourself to loving others, devote yourself to your community around you, and devote yourself to creating something that gives you purpose and meaning. You notice... there's nothing in there about a salary."

"Each night, when I go to sleep, I die. and the next morning, when I wake up, I am reborn." ~ Mahatma Gandhi

"A teacher affects eternity; he can never tell where is influence stops" ~ Henry Adams

About How Love Goes On
" When you're in bed, you're dead."

"...love is how you stay alive, even after you are gone."

About Marriage
"Still... there are a few rules I know to be true about love and marriage: If you don't respect the other person, you're gonna have a lot of trouble. If you don't know how to compromise, you're gonna have a lot of trouble. If you can't talk openly about what goes on between you, you're gonna have a lot of trouble. And if you don't have a common set of values in life, you're gonna have a lot of trouble. Your values must be alike... And the biggest one of those values... [is] your beliefe in the importance of your marriage."

About Culture
"In the beginning of life, when we are infants, we need others to survive, right? And at the end of life... you need othres to survive... but here's the secret: in between we need others as well."

"What's wrong with being number two?" ~ Morrie in a basketball game in 1979 when cheerers were shouting "We're number one!"

About Forgiveness
"It's not just other people we need to forgive... we also need to forgive others... for all the things we didn't do. All the things we should have done. You can't get stuck on the regrets of what should have happened."

"Forgive yourself. Forgive others. Don't wait."

Thank you Mitch for sharing with us life's lessons!