Reviews - Jag kan ha fel | The StoryGraph

We tend to think life should be the way we want it to be, the way we planned. But often, things don't turn out that way. In fact, they rarely do. And there's wisdom in not expecting life to turn out the way we think or feel it ought to. There's wisdom in understanding that we are essentially clueless.

doesn't believe it's possible to know whether things that happen in life are good or bad. Loosening our grip on those types of convictions is both liberating and a sign of wisdom

Things may end up different from what you initially thought. Something like losing something good may be a blessing in disguise

It seems to me, the more refined forms of happiness are characterised by the absence of things, rather than the presence of things.

Chaos may rattle you, but order can kill you

Don't be so uptight about the small things and how you want things to be a certain way

Live your life with slightly less firmly clenched fists and slightly more open hands. Slightly less control. Slightly more trust. Slightly less I need to know everything beforehand. Slightly more take life as it comes. It does all of us a world of good. Life doesn't have be lived with constant anxiety about things not turning out the way we want

I'm walking around trying to control everything. That makes life lonely, tough, fraught and anxious. Trust life a bit more! Almost all the best things in my life have been outside my control, I know this. Trying to direct and predict everything just makes life hard. Not fun. I lose a part of my intelligence when I get this tense.

Trust the process

Nothing lasts. Everything is impermanent. That's the bad news. But also the good news.

Luang Por Doon replied in Thai: 'Mee, date mai aow. It means something like: 'Anger arises, but nothing does it occupy.
I like this story because it illustrates what life can be like when our inner space is big enough to contain all our feelings. It's not that we stop having those feelings we view as negative or difficult. We just stop identifying with them; we don't let them occupy us. Then, they can no longer harm us, or make us do things we regret.

The day my last breath comes - whenever that may be - please don't ask me to fight it. Instead, do everything you can to help me to let go.

Tell me you'll be fine and that you'll stick together. Help me to remember everything we have to be grateful for. Show me your open hands, so I remember what I want it to feel like when it's time.

Elisabeth, if you're not already in my bed then, crawl in with me and hold me. Look me in the eyes. I want the last thing I see in this life to be your eyes.