Quotes from Tony Parsons

From the doorway I looked back at the street. The car parked outside was

nightlife. She was more of a dancing shoes kind of girl than a hiking boots kind of girl. There was a pained sweetness about her

I am not . . . . . . my life story, the mind, the body, feelings, experiences of pain or pleasure, struggle, success or failure. I am not loneliness, stillness, frustration or compassion. I am not even what I think is my purpose, the seeking, the finding, or anything which is called a spiritual experience.

The story of me is always about what will be, never what is. It is the search for a treasure within life, never seeing that life is the treasure.

There was lots that could be done. But there was also nothing that could be done. My father was dying.

telling me how much he loves me and the next

He couldn't fight this sadness which came in the middle of the night, this sadness which made you feel that nothing could ever be any good again.

Life is not a task.

If the story that engenders the fear is dropped, I discover that all I am left with is a physical sensation which is raw and alive. Now it ceases to overrun me and quietly takes its place in existence. It is the same with physical or emotional pain. When I cease to own it I liberate myself from its bondage and see it simply as it is. If I cease to label suffering as bad, and mine, it is possible to allow it simply as energy in a certain form, and it can then begin to have its own flavour.

But belief resides within the shadow of doubt. It only functions effectively in direct proportion to the suppression of the doubt that it seeks to override.

In our rush to find a better situation in time, we trample over the flower of beingness that presents itself in every moment.

It seems to me that our attachment to purpose is born from our need to prove something to ourselves. But life is simply life, and is not trying to prove anything at all. This springtime will not try to be better than last springtime, and neither will an ash tree try to become an oak.

For life is its own purpose and doesn't need a reason to be. That is its beauty.

In being, there is no becoming, no attachment to a goal. I see that I no longer have to achieve any standard or behave in a certain way in order to become worthy.

You know what the biggest lie in the world is?' 'Tell me.' 'That everything happens for a reason. It's not true. Some things are totally without reason. Some things – the things that hurt the most – are totally meaningless. Some things make no sense and will never make sense.' I

I suspected it was just that I no longer cared so much. And that felt like the saddest thing in the world

The total isolation of death. The loneliness of the dying man. That is what I had noticed about my father's death. We loved him but, in the end, we left him and he died alone. Because we were tired. Because it was late. Because there was nothing we could do. We loved him and yet he was on his own.

to love means to realize there is a time to let the beloved one go

It's painful and it's messy. But sometimes you just have to make the break and start again.

Love means knowing when to let go.

Sometimes we are only aware of how happy we are when the moment has passed. But now and again, if we are very lucky, we are aware of happiness when it is actually happening.

I once read somewhere that, in any relationship, the one who cares the least is the one with all the power.

It's funny. You love something and one day it's suddenly gone or changed or lost forever. But somehow that doesn't stop your loving. Maybe that's how you know it's the real thing.

Learn to trust your instincts. Only something dead goes with the tide. Only something living can go against it.