As a nursing assistant, for the past three years I have looked death in the face as it reached out and took the last breath of the individuals who depended on me in the last moments of their life. I have changed lifeless bodies out of soiled clothes and cared for them tenderly even after I felt their pulse falter and stop beneath my fingertips. I have closed their eyes, and held their hand one last time before counseling their mourning sons and daughters.
For two years, I have felt the air grow colder and the presence of something I cannot explain. I read and reread newspaper clippings, I feel goosebumps crawl across my skin as I am reintroduced to the men and women I only met after their bodies had abandoned their minds. I cry tears of happiness for their accomplishments, their love and joy for life.
That feeling was repeated as I read "Tuesdays with Morrie." Mitch Albom tells the story of his terminally ill professor, Morrie. A man who demanded in the last moments of his life that no one pity him, who taught me more about life and death in 56 pages than I ever learned in my 12 years of school, who chose to teach the world until his very last breath. This one man's journey showed me what it means to be successful.
Because of Morrie, I’m not worried about a big paycheck, owning a home, investing in stocks or multiplying savings. I want to spend my life sharing my heart with the world, to give to my community, be at peace with myself, and trade stories with strangers. I want to create my own culture because the one around me is deficient. We are so involved in the materialistic things around us that we are deficient in love; we take the universe around us for granted. Rather than changing my perception of the world, Morrie’s story has helped me to prioritize it, to open my eyes to the world around me, feel every emotion more deeply, and recognize that all things are impermanent. I am dedicating my life to compassion, to love, teaching, communication, friendship, honesty and companionship.
All thanks to one man’s story, and another man’s willingness to share it.
As a result of my exposure to this new outlook on life, I wonder how our society has found itself so wrapped up in the lives of celebrities, yet we walk past strangers as if they don’t exist? We allow ourselves to disconnect from the human beings around us and have become attached to reality television. I am taking the steps to change this in my own life. I am starting by sharing a smile every chance I get.
How have human beings become so shortsighted? We work day in and day out to make more money, buy more things, never stopping to think about what will matter to us at the end of our lives. What will we be thankful we did? Perhaps one of the most pulling questions I ask myself is, what am I going to do to make sure I don’t forget these lessons?
I haven't yet found an answer. For now I will stay involved in policy making, tell my friends I care about them, smile at strangers, encourage everyone to follow their dreams, meditate in the mornings, read a lot, listen to others, and make sure they know I'm really listening. If I have kids, I'll raise them differently. And most importantly–I will never stop learning, because right now, that's the best I can do.
