d153b23
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Want to keep Christ in Christmas? Feed the hungry, clothe the naked, forgive the guilty, welcome the unwanted, care for the ill, love your enemies, and do unto others as you would have done unto you.
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clothe
ill
christianity
jesus
care
motivational
life
love
inspirational
feed
unwanted
hungry
welcome
golden-rule
christmas
service
naked
christ
forgive
enemies
guilty
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Steve Maraboli |
7b373f8
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In a strange way, I envied the quality of Morrie's time even as I lamented its diminishing supply. Why did we bother with all the distractions we did? .. give up days and weeks of our lives, addicted to someone else's drama.
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ill
live
life
others
envy
quality
drama
dying
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Mitch Albom |
a07d672
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"It's only horrible if you see it that way," Morrie said. "It's horrible to watch my body slowly wilt away to nothing. But it's also wonderful because of all the time I get to say good-bye." He smiled. "Not everyone is so lucky."
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bye
wilt
ill
time
nothing
lucky
horrible
slow
dying
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Mitch Albom |
7b9520f
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His eyes were more sunken than I remembered them, and his cheekbones more pronounced. This gave him a harsher, older look - until he smiled, of course, and the sagging cheeks gathered up like curtains.
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describe
ill
death
face
look
smile
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Mitch Albom |
49fcc37
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..And because he was still able to move his hands - Morrie always spoke with both hands waving - he showed great passion when explaining how you face the end of life.
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ill
passion
death
life
hands
wait
decision
way-of-life
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Mitch Albom |
f3f43a2
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"Morrie closed his eyes. "I know, Mitch. You mustn't be afraid of my dying. I've had a good life, and we all know it's going to happen. I maybe have four or five months."
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ill
live
good
life
months
dying
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Mitch Albom |
e66083c
|
Morrie was in a wheelchair full-time now, getting used to helpers lifting him like a heavy sack from the chair to the bed and the bed to the chair.
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ill
life
wheelchair
dignity
help
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Mitch Albom |
89ca8f1
|
"I asked Morrie if he felt sorry for himself. "Sometimes, in the mornings," he said. "That's when I mourn. I feel around my body, I move my fingers and my hands - whatever I can still move - and I mourn what I've lost. I mourn the slow, insidious way in which I'm dying. But then I stop mourning."
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insidious
ill
sorry
slow
mourn
self
lost
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Mitch Albom |
49d4e9b
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That was the end of his driving.. That was the end of his walking free.. That was the end of his privacy.. And that was the end of his secret.
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terminal
ill
change
life
end
disease
normal
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Mitch Albom |
36be36a
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Do I wither up and disappear, or do I make the best of my time left?.. He would not wither. He would not be ashamed of dying.
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terminal
ill
time
thoughts
left
disease
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Mitch Albom |
75f14e2
|
Holding him like that moved me in a way I cannot describe, except to say I felt the seeds of death inside his shrivelling frame, and as I laid him in his chair, adjusting his head on the pillows, I had the coldest realisation that our time was running out.
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run-out
ill
time
death
realise
hold
move
dying
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Mitch Albom |
9fcbed2
|
If some mystical clarity of thought came when you looked death in the eye, then I knew Morrie wanted to share it. And I wanted to remember it for as long as I could.
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ill
time
death
share
remember
thought
dying
memory
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Mitch Albom |
ea94c4b
|
ALS is like a lit candle: it melts your nerves and leaves your body a pile of wax.. you cannot support yourself standing.. you cannot sit up straight. By the end, if you are still alive.. your soul, perfectly awake, is imprisoned inside a limp husk.. like something from a science fiction movie, the man frozen inside his own flesh.
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candle
terminal
ill
nerves
disease
soul
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Mitch Albom |
cbbf16d
|
"Had it not been for "Nightline," Morrie would have died without ever seeing me again. I had no good excuse for this, except the one that everyone these days seems to have. I had become too wrapped up in the siren song of my life. I was busy."
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|
ill
death
life
workaholic
excuse
friend
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Mitch Albom |
4b37f8f
|
He had refused fancy clothes or makeup for this interview. His philosophy was that death should to be embarrassing; he was not about to powder its nose.
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ill
embarrass
point-of-view
perspective
makeup
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Mitch Albom |
7c4079d
|
Morrie had amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS), Lou Gehrig's disease, a brutal, unforgiving illness of the neurological system. There was no known cure.
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terminal
ill
cure
nerves
sick
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Mitch Albom |
4d901c8
|
I watched him now, his hands working gingerly, as if he were learning to use them for the first time. He could not press down hard with a knife. His fingers shook. Each bite was a struggle; he chewed the food finely before swallowing.. The skin from his wrist to his knuckles was dotted with age spots, and it was loose, like skin hanging from a chicken soup bone.
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|
describe
ill
old
eating
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Mitch Albom |
a1021b0
|
For a while, we just ate like that, a sick old man, a healthy, younger man, both absorbing the quiet of the room. I would say it was an embarrassed silence, but I seemed to be the only one embarrassed.
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ill
silence
healthy
old
quiet
young
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Mitch Albom |
4c888e0
|
I may be dying, but I am surrounded by loving, caring souls. How many people can say that?
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|
ill
live
death
life
love
dying
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Mitch Albom |
66d6f11
|
I was astonished by his complete lack of self-pity. Morrie, who could no longer dance, swim, bathe, or walk; Morrie, who could no longer answer his own door, dry himself after a shower, or even roll over in bed. How could he be so accepting? I watched him struggle with a fork, picking at a piece of tomato, missing it the first two times - a pathetic scene, and yet I could not deny that sitting in his presence was almost magically serene, the same calm breeze that soothed me back in college.
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|
ill
struggle
live
past
life
presence
pity
dying
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Mitch Albom |
2e3fd39
|
People scooped up these tabloids, devoured their gossip.. But now, for some reason, I found myself thinking about Morrie whenever I read anything silly or mindless. I kept picturing him there, in the house with the Japanese maple.. counting his breath, squeezing out every moment with his loved ones, while I spent so many hours on things that meant absolutely nothing to me personally.
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senseless
ill
live
life
love
quality
moment
gossip
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Mitch Albom |
68dd477
|
But I can sit here with my dwindling days and look at what I think is important in life. I have both the time - and the reason - to do that.
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ill
time
reason
life
important
think
end
dying
|
Mitch Albom |