When you know how to die,you know how to live

Imaging being confined to a wheel chair, I can’t go anywhere. Worse still, if someday I needed others to help me deal with every trifle such as dining, walking, to name just a few. If my daily life became what I just described, perhaps I will consider my life a miserable journey or even a doomsday. In comparison with my thought, Morrie is optimistic about his life. Who’s Morrie, you may wonder? He’s an old professor suffering from a rare disease, ALS. In this book-Tuesdays With Morrie, the author, Mitch Albom, writes in detail about a serious of dialogues he had with his college professor mentoring him twenty years earlier. The book inspires me a lot, especially when Morrie mentioned ”When you know how to die, you know how to live.” Probably we are aware of this fact that there’s an end in our life journeys, but we barely take it seriously so that we tend not to cherish our family members, and friendships until we lose them.

As the story unfold, a question has lingered in the mind repeatedly. If my family member were diagnosed with the same disease like Morrie, what could I do for them in the rest of life? Against all odds, I would rather pluck up my courage to accompany them to get through this frustrating period than complain what I confronted. As their beloved family, the last thing I can do for them is to empathize their anxiety, despair and agony. I’ll always be there with them, when they feel embarrassed. Because they are not capable of going to the toilet on their own; I won’t turn my back on them even if they can’t walk anymore or even become companion obsessed. Although we can’t control how long our lives are, we can live a meaningful life. In other word, carpe diem. We are all able to and obliged to enjoy every delightful moment. Notwithstanding, we can have an emotional outlet if we feel like bursting into tears. However, after crying, we are supposed to focus on what we possess instead of we’ve lost. After all, diseases can invade our body, but our soul will not surrender.

During reading this book, it struck me the phenomenon of aging. There’s no denying that aging is an inevitable process in life journey. Yet, most of us regard it as a terrible process. In my opinion, aging is a crucial process recording our experiences that make us more mature and sophisticated. However, speaking of aging, we often associate it with some words such as out of fashion, sickly, and troublesome. If we put ourselves into elders’ shoes, we may change our original thought. I have deeply empathized their feelings when I visited my grandparents. Scarcely did I have extra time to keep their company due to my devotion to academic performance. Thus, my grandma couldn’t recognize me and seemed to be in a low ebb. Under such circumstance, tears dropped along my check, my heart feeling painful as if someone took a knife stabbing into my heart. In the meantime, a thought flashed into my mind; that is, I hope to accompany my grandma in the rest of her life. From then on, I spared some time to chat with her. No sooner had she seen me than she beamed with a smile. At that moment, I understand a simple smile, a warm hug and a little bit more concern will be the greatest emotional support to the elderly in facing aging process.

Providing that I am about to arrive at the destination of journey, and prepare well for the fact at any time so that I can devote myself to my life wholeheartedly while I’m still capable of. Although I may still be down due to my health conditions sometimes, I know my family members and friends will take side with me to help me get through this tough process. There may be shower at times in life journey. Nonetheless, when I take a positive attitude toward my life, I will grow stronger. I believe it’s the most beautiful rainbow after raining. That’s the most prized lesson I’ve picked up from this book Tuesdays With Morrie.