I recently read "Tuesdays With Morrie" by Mitch Albom. Excellent book that tells the story of an old man passing on the wisdom obtained through a lifetime of living to a younger man searching for meaning and direction in his life.

There are a lot of little tidbits in this book so instead of trying to summarize them I thought I would share a list of these tidbits Morrie offers Mitch during their conversations.

Life is a series of pulls back and forth…..Who wins?…..Love wins. Love always wins.

The culture we have doesn’t make people feel good about themselves. You have to be strong enough to say that if the culture doesn’t work, don’t buy it.

Let love come in. We think we don’t deserve love, we think if let it in it will make us soft. But a wise man named Levine said "Love is the only rational act."

Learn how to die and you learn how to live.

Love each other or perish. Auden

You must detach yourself from life’s experiences. 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.

I embrace aging. It’s very simple. As you grow, you learn more. If you stayed at twenty-two, you would always be as ignorant as you were at twenty-two. Aging is not just decay, you know. It is growth. It isn’t just the negative that you are going to die, it is also the positive that you know you are going to die and you live a better life because of it.

There’s a big confusion in this country over what we want versus what we need. You need food, you want a chocolate sundae. You have to be honest with yourself. You don’t need the latest sports car. You don’t need the biggest house.

Truth is, you don’t get satisfaction from those things. You know what really gives you satisfaction? Offering others what you have to give.

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

The biggest defect we human beings have is our shortsightedness. We don’t see what we could be. We should be looking at our potential, stretching ourselves into everything we can be.

Forgive yourself before you die. Then forgive others.

What a great collection of little tidbits learned over the course of a life well lived.

Make it a great day.

Jake