"Give up defining yourself - to yourself or to others. You won’t die. You will come to life. And don’t be concerned with how others define you. When they define you, they are limiting themselves, so it’s their problem. Whenever you interact with people, don’t be there primarily as a function or a role, but as the field of conscious presence. You can only lose something that you have, but you cannot lose something that you are. "
"You gradually get over the pain. It doesn’t go away, not for a long time, but it becomes easier to live with. One morning you wake up, and he’s not the first thing on your mind. And then a few months down the line, you realize you’ve made it through half the day without thinking of him. Sometimes it takes months, sometimes years, but eventually you reach a point when you only think about them occasionally. You manage to do this because you don’t see them, you don’t hear about them, and you try not to think about them. And then you bump into them walking down the street, or someone unexpected mentions their name and the memories come flooding back. But memories also become less painful in time."
