How to Walk Away

by Katherine Center

You can’t ask someone to love you or be there for you or do the right thing—and you certainly can’t guilt them into it. Either they will or they won’t.

So much of life is just grinding through. So many moments just exist to deliver you to the ones that follow. But this moment was a destination in itself.

I suddenly saw it very clearly. She wanted to help—but only in the ways that she had already chosen. My mother was always very helpful—when you did exactly what she wanted.

‘When you don’t know what to do for yourself, do something for someone else.’”

“Anticipating a reward lights up the same region of the brain as actually getting a reward,” she said. “That’s what a dum-dum the brain is. It doesn’t even know the difference.”

The greater our capacity for sorrow becomes, the greater our capacity for joy.

But you have to live the life you have. You have to find inspiration in the struggle, and pull joy out of the hardship.

You can’t fix everything. Not even close. But you can look for reasons to be grateful. More than that, you can work to create them.