Tuesdays with Morrie

I read Mitch Albom's Tuesdays with Morrie recently. What a gift! Here are some of my favorite quotes:

• "The day he learned he was terminally ill was the day he lost all interest in his purchasing power."
• "When you're in bed, you're dead."
• "Giving to other people is what makes me feel alive."
• "You have to find what's good and true and beautiful in your life now."
• "The issue is to accept who you are and revel in it."
• "Learn to detach...Don't cling to things because everything is impermanent...But detachment doesn't mean you let the experience penetrate you. On the contrary, you let it penetrate you fully. That's how you are able to leave it."
• "Love each other or perish."
• "We are deficient in some way...we are too involved in materialistic things, and they don't satisfy us. The loving relationships we have, the universe around us, we take these things for granted."
• "To know you're going to die, and to be prepared for it at any time...that way you can be more involved in your life while you're living."
• "Every day have a little bird on your shoulder that asks, 'Is today the day? Am I ready? Am I doing all I need to do? Am I being the person I want to be?'"
• "The culture doesn't encourage you to think about such things until you're about to die. We're so wrapped up with egotistical things, career, family, having enough money, meeting the mortgage, getting a new car, fixing the radiator when it breaks, 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 this all? Is this all I want? Is something missing?"

This book helped me connect to my loved ones and to cherish them. We are all so busy but the moments we spend together matter deeply. I think my dog gets this stuff intuitively. All she wants is to love and be loved.