To stay alive

To survive in this world, sometimes you must be a little calculating, a little selfish.

Before you're ready to lay down your life for someone, first test whether they'd be willing to sacrifice even a strand of their hair for you. If someone wades in ankle-deep for you, go knee-deep for them. But if you go knee-deep for someone who won't even wet their finger for you, stop even dampening yours for them. Simplicity and foolishness are different things.

Let your world belong to those for whom you yourself are a world. Let only those remain in your world who carry you across their entire universe. As for the others outside this circle—it hardly matters if you don't mingle much with them.

A little calculation, a little arithmetic of life—who among us doesn't do these sums?

Beyond blood relations, the person who sheds even a drop of sweat for you—that person is closer than close, dearer than dear.

Keep your door forever open for such souls, because in a world where even blood relatives become strangers, if a 'stranger' becomes like blood to you, they are not just your own—they are more than your own.

Those you consider family through inheritance or birthright—when self-interest is threatened, their terrible faces will shock you. But the person who shares no blood with you has no such vested interest in you. Treasure their selfless acts.

Not all blood relations become your own, just as sometimes a stranger becomes family. We need only to recognize who is truly our own and who is not; to understand that not all flowers and fruits born on the same tree are of the same variety—some fruits on certain trees turn out to be of an altogether different breed.

You've lived a long stretch of life for those close to you—now, through the gaps of this weary existence, live a few days for those who are not your own by blood, but who become more than your own.

Whatever it takes, you must stay well. One who keeps you well is home, even if a stranger; one who doesn't keep you well is a stranger, even if home.