“Worry is like a kettle full of water, it felt as if my mind was on the boil at a ferocious intensity with no opportunity to let off steam. There is nothing you can do but get through it as best you can.”
“If pain is a pot of boiling water, humor can be the rising steam.”
“Be like water making its way through cracks. Do not be assertive, but adjust to the object, and you shall find a way around or through it. If nothing within you stays rigid, outward things will disclose themselves. Empty your mind, be formless. Shapeless, like water. If you put water into a cup, it becomes the cup. You put water into a bottle and it becomes the bottle. You put it in a teapot, it becomes the teapot. Now, water can flow or it can crash. Be water, my friend.”
“You can be so much in a room that the world outside turns to water. You've got the heater blowing out burnt air, but you still don't get warm. Your ankles are singed, but your head's in a bucket of ice. Time drips like a stalactite. The water for the coffee boils away in a tree of steam.”
“No," said Father. "Just do the best you can and don't let it worry you. In that way you'll have a clear conscience and a tranquil heart.”
“Listen, life’s too short to let sadness overpower you for long periods of time. Like you said, ‘Everyone dies.’ I felt my emotions, cried my tears, and then came to peace about it. You don’t ever ‘get over’ something like that,” she said, adding air quotes. “Al you can do is embrace the experience and do your best to go on.”