Eugene O'Kelly > Quotes

“It’s a blessing. It’s a curse. It’s what you get for saying hello to people. At some point, a good-bye is coming, too. Not just to all the people you love and who love you back, but to the world as well.”
― Eugene O'Kelly, Chasing Daylight: How My Forthcoming Death Transformed My Life

“You can do anything if you give your best energy to it. Time truly becomes less important.”
― Eugene O'Kelly, Chasing Daylight: How My Forthcoming Death Transformed My Life

“People don’t walk into the top spot. They’re driven. One”
― Eugene O'Kelly, Chasing Daylight:How My Forthcoming Death Transformed My Life

“Before my illness, I had considered commitment king among virtues. After I was diagnosed, I came to consider consciousness king among virtues. I began to feel that everyone’s first responsibility was to be as conscious as possible all the time, especially later in life, especially toward the very end. For one thing, it could help others to understand the end better. That’s a responsibility we owe to each other, certainly to the generation to follow.”
― Eugene O'Kelly, Chasing Daylight: How My Forthcoming Death Transformed My Life

“And where was the support for that kind of preparation? There are all kinds of medicines and medical devices and clinics and even hospice care to prolong life and make it as easeful as possible—but who helps you to really prepare for it, philosophically? Who teaches you how to embrace it? Is there anyone out there who really does that?”
― Eugene O'Kelly, Chasing Daylight:How My Forthcoming Death Transformed My Life

“people—that is, my tolerance for imperfection—expanded.”
― Eugene O'Kelly, Chasing Daylight:How My Forthcoming Death Transformed My Life

“was about staying rooted while also growing. It was about having one foot planted on firm, familiar ground, while another toed new and unfamiliar ground.”
― Eugene O'Kelly, Chasing Daylight:How My Forthcoming Death Transformed My Life

“Drive for show, putt for dough.”
― Eugene O'Kelly, Chasing Daylight:How My Forthcoming Death Transformed My Life

“I was pretty certain that the adventure I was going through now had made me a more creative, flexible thinker than I’d ever been.”
― Eugene O'Kelly, Chasing Daylight:How My Forthcoming Death Transformed My Life

“realized that consistency, a trait I had long esteemed, was sometimes not such a virtue after all.”
― Eugene O'Kelly, Chasing Daylight:How My Forthcoming Death Transformed My Life

“After all, you can’t unwind your most important relationships first, then bide your time with those loved ones while unwinding far less significant relationships”
― Eugene O'Kelly, Chasing Daylight: How My Forthcoming Death Transformed My Life

“THERE IS NO DEATH! WHAT SEEMS SO IS TRANSITION; THIS LIFE OF MORTAL BREATH IS BUT A SUBURB OF THE LIFE ELYSIAN, WHOSE PORTAL WE CALL DEATH. —Henry Wadsworth Longfellow”
― Eugene O'Kelly, Chasing Daylight: How My Forthcoming Death Transformed My Life

“Why can’t the last part of life be the best one? Yes, we see elderly parents and grandparents dealing with the pain and difficulties of aging. But if the physical pain can be managed, who’s to say this can’t be the most spiritually and intellectually rich time of our lives? Isn’t it arrogant to presume it can’t be? Once,”
― Eugene O'Kelly, Chasing Daylight:How My Forthcoming Death Transformed My Life

“Simplicity is in such scarce supply, I thought, yet so many people would benefit by it, be transformed by it.”
― Eugene O'Kelly, Chasing Daylight:How My Forthcoming Death Transformed My Life

“I understood better the range of human capability; it was far broader than I’d thought. In my previous life, I’d dealt mostly with people at the top of their game. Now I was dealing with people whose capabilities had been diminished. By disease, doubt, fatigue.”
― Eugene O'Kelly, Chasing Daylight:How My Forthcoming Death Transformed My Life

“Why was it so scary to ask themselves one simple question: Why am I doing what I’m doing? Part of me understood the vortex, of course. Part of me understood that they couldn’t stop, particularly if they’d enjoyed success, because if they did stop, they would stop being relevant. I understood. Completely.”
― Eugene O'Kelly, Chasing Daylight:How My Forthcoming Death Transformed My Life

“The business of dying is hard. The wrapping up. The paperwork, the legal work. The stuff that’s boring and maddening about life when life is going well. Of course, the other stuff that’s happening when dying—the physical stuff and the huge emotional stuff—can be unspeakably awful. But if paperwork is enough to break your spirit—and it is—then how can you have anything left?”
― Eugene O'Kelly, Chasing Daylight: How My Forthcoming Death Transformed My Life

“Not infrequently over the course of our marriage we’d talked about how each of us—or anyone, for that matter—needed to develop the inner strength necessary to face his or her own death. Not to pay lip service to the concept but really attempt to work at it. People neglected to do so at their peril.”
― Eugene O'Kelly, Chasing Daylight:How My Forthcoming Death Transformed My Life

“The only decision to focus on is the one you are still able to make,” he said. I nodded. We Irish suffer a long-standing tradition, if not a genetic predisposition, of looking back, of going over unresolved situations. “They say the only things the Irish take to their graves,” I said, “are grudges.”
― Eugene O'Kelly, Chasing Daylight: How My Forthcoming Death Transformed My Life

“What caused them to not choose us? What caused them to choose the other guys? Did we do everything we could? Honestly? Was there any lack of commitment? If we had to do it again, would we have done anything differently? What?”
― Eugene O'Kelly, Chasing Daylight: How My Forthcoming Death Transformed My Life

“The skill set of a CEO (ability to see the big picture, to deal with a wide range of problems, to plan for contingencies, etc.)”
― Eugene O'Kelly, Chasing Daylight:How My Forthcoming Death Transformed My Life

“Consciousness, not commitment, was a better, more accurate, less time-entangled word to”
― Eugene O'Kelly, Chasing Daylight:How My Forthcoming Death Transformed My Life

“This idea is reminiscent of an idea put forth by Tibetan monks, who believe that when you die, you should be sitting up because consciousness exits the body at the highest point, and if it leaves from your head, you will be most conscious, which will enable you to have greater influence over your reincarnation. It was impossible to say with certainty whether he had ever read or heard about this Tibetan concept, or if it came to him from another source, or if it came to him from no source but his own. “Where did you get this idea?” I asked him. “It just seems right,” he said.”
― Eugene O'Kelly, Chasing Daylight: How My Forthcoming Death Transformed My Life

“There was a market opportunity there, I felt. Go ahead, someone. Embrace “less is more” for those who need simplicity. Was my deterioration starting to affect my judgment? Was I getting wise—or just cranky? I didn’t know. I just wanted an easy-to-use cell phone. One without a damn camera.”
― Eugene O'Kelly, Chasing Daylight: How My Forthcoming Death Transformed My Life