orange

“I thought about how often this was needed in everyday life. How we feel lonely,
sometimes to the point of tears, but we don’t let those tears come because we are not
supposed to cry. Or how we feel a surge of love for a partner but we don’t say anything
because we’re frozen with the fear of what those words might do to the relationship.
Morrie’s approach was exactly the opposite. Turn on the faucet. Wash yourself with
the emotion. 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.”
― Mitch Albom, Tuesdays with Morrie: An Old Man, a Young Man, and Life's Greatest Lesson

“All I can picture is Mom working at the table and Dad working at his desk, and my empty spot on the couch, and silence.
All I can think is that, without me there, they don't have to pretend everything is okay.
They don't have to pretend smile, and say pretend /have a good day/ and pretend /I love you./
Pretend words sound so different from real ones. Like you've got something stuck in your throat that won't come out, and you're trying to act like it isn't there.”
― Claire Legrand

“I believe in being fully present,” Morrie said. “That means you should be with the person you’re with. When I’m talking to you now, Mitch, I try to keep focused only on what is going on between us. I am not thinking about something we said last week. I am not thinking of what’s coming up this Friday. I am not thinking about doing another Koppel show, or about what medications I’m taking.
“I am talking to you. I am thinking about you.”
― Mitch Albom, Tuesdays with Morrie: An Old Man, a Young Man, and Life's Greatest Lesson

“—and the anchor asked if my old professor had anything he wanted to say to the millions of people he had touched. Although he did not mean it this way, I couldn’t help but think of a condemned man being asked for his final words.
“Be compassionate,” Morrie whispered. “And take responsibility for each other. If we only learned those lessons, this world would be so much better a place.”
He took a breath, then added his mantra: “Love each other or die.”
― Mitch Albom, Tuesdays with Morrie: An Old Man, a Young Man, and Life's Greatest Lesson