Tuesdays with Morrie

while I spent so many hours on things that meant absolutely nothing to me personally: movie stars, supermodels, the latest noise out of Princess Di or Madonna or John F. Kennedy, Jr. In a strange way, I envied the quality of Morrie’s time even as I lamented its diminishing supply.

So many people walk around with a meaningless life. They seem half-asleep, even when they’re busy doing things they think are important. This is because they’re chasing the wrong things. The way you get meaning into your life is to devote yourself to loving others, devote yourself to your community around you, and devote yourself to creating something that gives you purpose and meaning.

I thought about all the people I knew who spent many of their waking hours feeling sorry for themselves. How useful it would be to put a daily limit on self-pity. Just a few tearful minutes, then on with the day.

Once you learn how to die, you learn how to live.

most of us all walk around as if we’re sleepwalking. We really don’t experience the world fully, because we’re half-asleep, doing things we automatically think we have to do.

When you realize you are going to die, you see everything much differently. He sighed. “Learn how to die, and you learn how to live.”

It won’t hurt you. It will only help. If you let the fear inside, if you pull it on like a familiar shirt, then you can say to yourself, “All right, it’s just fear, I don’t have to let it control me. I see it for what it is.” Same for loneliness: you let go, let the tears flow, feel it completely—but eventually be able to say, “All right, that was my moment with loneliness. I’m not afraid of feeling lonely, but now I’m going to put that loneliness aside and know that there are other emotions in the world, and I’m going to experience them as well.” “Detach,” Morrie said again.

I want to talk to that person. I want to tell him what to look out for, what mistakes to avoid. I want to tell him to be more open, to ignore the lures of advertised values, to pay attention when your loved ones are speaking, as if it were the last time you might hear them.

I know I cannot do this. None of us can undo what we've done, or relive a life already recorded. But if Professor Morris Schwartz taught me anything at all, it was this: there is no such thing as "too late" in life. He was changing until the day he said good-bye.

Devote yourself to loving others,devote yourself to your community around you,and devote yourself to creating something that gives you purpose and meaning.

Do the kinds of things that come from the heart.When you do, you won't be dis satisfied, you won't be envious, you won't be longing for somebody else's things.On the contrary , you'll be overwhelmed with what comes back.

Friends are great, but friends are not going to be here on a night when you're coughing and can't sleep and someone has to sit up all night with you,comfort you,try to be helpful.

Marriage is very important thing to do,and you're missing a hell of a lot if you don't try it.

you can't get stuck on the regrets of what should have happened.That doesn't help you when you get to where I am.

Forgive yourself.Forgive others. Don't wait, not everyone gets the time I'm getting.Not everyone is as lucky.