Mitch Albom

HOW DO PEOPLE choose their final words? Do they realize their gravity? Are they fated to be wise?

But scenery without solace is meaningless.

But all endings are also beginnings. We just don't know it at the time.

Sometimes stories meet at corners and sometimes they cover one another completely, like stones beneath a river.

How Do PEOPLE choose their final words? Do they realize their gravity? Are they fated to be wise?

“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.”

“It’s not just other people we need to forgive, Mitch,” he finally whispered. We also need to forgive
ourselves.”
Ourselves?
“Yes. For all the things we didn’t do. All the things we should have done. You can’t get stuck on the regrets of what should have happened. That doesn’t help you when you get to where I am.

“That’s what we’re all looking for. A certain peace with the idea of dying. If we know, in the end, that we can ultimately have that peace with dying, then we can finally do the really hard thing.”
Which is?
“Make peace with living.”

Make peace. You need to make peace with yourself and everyone around you.”
I leaned over and dabbed at the tears with a tissue. Morrie flicked his eyes open and closed. His breathing was audible, like a light snore.
“Forgive yourself. Forgive others. Don’t wait, Mitch. Not everyone gets the time I’m getting. Not everyone is as lucky.”

“As long as we can love each other, and remember the feeling of love we had, we can die without ever really going away. All the love you created is still there. All the memories are still there. You live on—in the hearts of everyone you have touched and nurtured while you were here.”