My Touchstone

The one book that comes to my mind often is Randy Pausch's "The Last Lecture". There are so many touchstones for me throughout this book. It was impossible for me to put it down! Passages became stuck in my head- I would randomly think of them and smile! Bad days, happy days, these passages made a difference! I cannot pick just one and if I could post the whole work on here, I would! Some that strike me most:



"Wow, this is the epitome of a person appreciating this day and this moment."
~ This passage simply refers to seeing someone with a smile on their face, enjoying life and the moment they are in! I immediately thought of Walter Pater and the idea of living in each moment because there will never be another like it- living for each pulse. To see someone appreciating the finite moments they have in life is like a breath of fresh air. A person appreciating life and the beauty within it really is an epitome, but sometimes we are blind. We do not always take notice of these epitomes. But if we break out of our daily routine, we will see the epitomes we never had before!


"So today, right now, well this is a wonderful day. And I want you to know how much I'm enjoying it...That's the way the rest of my life would need to be lived.."
~This also reminds me of Pater. Indulge in the arts of life and love every moment of it!


"...The brick walls are there to stop the people who don't want it badly enough. They're there to stop the other people."
~ I laugh when I read this now because sometimes I feel as if this class is a lot of work. I think to myself "I will never get it all done!" Thinking about this passage though...ya know what! If I want to get it all done and do well, I WILL! So, needless to say, the workload of the semester is my brick wall, at least for the time being. Just a wall though.

Perhaps, these are more words of encouragement, words of wisdom, but these are the words that spoke to me. Siddhartha is a novel that also presents many touchstone moments of which I shall add soon!