As I sit in the hospital and watch my mother make a choice between living and dying, and watch many doctors and nurses in the hospital see her as an old belligerent patient and me as an annoying (or worse) daughter, I think about how we live our lives.

I am drawn to the book “Tuesdays with Morrie” and what Morrie Schwartz said. If you haven’t read it, then buy it today.

Yes, I am all about transformation; the good, the bad, the beautiful, the ugly. I am about life and death. I think about people who put their ego’s on the table everyday and stand for people; the people who are too afraid about the unseen ramifications; the people who forgot they really care; the people who think they have no voice and want to be right about it; the ones who think this is all about a training; the ones who want to be right.

Well as my mother lies here I think about September 11. For some it has become a time to remember something horrific that happened and for some it is a memorial to visit. I think about September 23 where people could walk in the door of a WorldLegacy training and be stood for with integrity and responsibility. And it is not about a Training. It is about living life, waking up, and giving a damn.

Everybody knows they’re going to die. And we pretend it isn’t so. Or we think avoiding exposure will delay the inevitable.

Quotes from Morrie…
“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.”

“Everybody knows they’re going to die, but nobody believes it. If we did, we would do things differently. To know you’re going to die and be prepared for it at any time. That’s better. That way you can be actually 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 truth is, Mitch, once you learn how to die, you learn how to live.”

“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.”

“We’ve got a sort of brainwashing going on in our country. Owning things is good. More money is good. More property is good. More commercialism is good. We repeat it–and have it repeated to us–over and over until nobody bothers to even think otherwise. The average person is so fogged up by all of this; he has no perspective on what’s really important anymore.”

“The loving relationships we have, the universe around us, we take these things for granted.”

“The most important thing in life is to learn how to give out love, and to let it come in. Let it come in.”

“Be compassionate, and take responsibility for each other. If we only learned those lessons, this world would be so much better a place.”

“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.”

Dr. Lori Todd

My Mother:
Elaine Todd Koren is an artist and author. Her latest book called “Minor Incident” is a memoir of her life at age 20, in 1944 in Woodstock, NY. It chronicles a terrible accident that happened to her at the height of World War II. An earlier, very successful book, “Suzanne of Love and Art” is a biographical novel she wrote that describes the dazzling life of Suzanne Valadon, who was the mistress of Renoir and Toulouse-Lautrec and a painter herself.

Morrie Schwartz:
Tuesdays with Morrie is a book about Morrie and a former student of his, Mitch Albom. After seeing Morrie interviewed on Nightline with Ted Koppel, Albom started flying to Morrie’s home in New England from Detroit for Tuesday visits. Mitch had discovered that Morrie had ALS (Lou Gehrig’s disease), a terminal neurological disease. After about fourteen visits Morrie finally loses his battle with ALS when it takes his ability to breathe. Albom’s book is full of the lessons and wisdom that Morrie imparts to him in his final stage of life.

It is Time to Live While you are still alive – Dr. Lori Todd