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36add67
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from the beginning, God said, 'I'm gonna put this world into your hands. If I run everything, then that's not you.' So we were created with a piece of divinity inside us, but with this thing called free will, and I think God watches us every day, lovingly, praying we will make the right choices.
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Mitch Albom |
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3011cd0
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To my Charley on his wedding day - I know you think these notes are silly. I have watched you scrunch your face over the years when I give them to you. But understand that sometimes I want to tell you something and I want to get it just right. Putting it down on paper helps me do that. I wish I had been a better writer. I wish I had gone to college. If I had, I think I would have studied English and maybe my vocabulary would have improved...
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Mitch Albom |
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e23ccfe
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Life is a series of pulls back and forth. You want to do one thing, but you are bound to do something else. Something hurts you, yet you know it shouldn't. You take certain things for granted, even when you know you should never take anything for granted. "A tension of opposites, like a pull on a rubber band. And most of us live somewhere in the middle." Sounds like a wrestling match, I say. "A wrestling match." He laughs. "Yes, you could d..
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love
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Mitch Albom |
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dd2375f
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Sacrifice," the Captain said. "You made one. I made one. We all make them. But you were angry over yours. You kept thinking about what you lost. You didn't get it. Sacrifice is a part of life. It's supposed to be. It's not something to regret. It's something to aspire to. Little sacrifices. Big sacrifices. A mother works so her son can go to school. A daughter moves home to take care of her sick father."
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Mitch Albom |
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c904377
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That's the thing. Sometimes when you sacrifice something precious, you're not really losing it. You're just passing it on to someone else.
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Mitch Albom |
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d25ec53
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Parents rarely let go of their children, so children let go of them. They move on. They move away. The moments that used to define them -- a mother's approval, a father's nod -- are covered by moments of their own accomplishments. It is not until much later, as the skin sags and the heart weakens, that children understand; their stories, and all their accomplishments, sit atop the stories of their mothers and fathers, stones upon stones, be..
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Mitch Albom |
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fb5d147
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Ruby stepped toward him. "Edward," she said softly. It was the first time she had called him by name. "Learn this from me. Holding anger is a poison. It eats you from inside. We think that hating is a weapon that attacks the person who harmed us. But hatred is a curved blade. And the harm we do, we do to ourselves. Forgive, Edward. Forgive. Do you remember the lightness you felt when you first arrived in heaven?" Eddie did. Where is my pain..
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Mitch Albom |
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ecec21e
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You did this, too?" he finally said. "You met five people?" She nodded. "A different five people," he said. She nodded again. "And they explained everything? And it made a difference?" She smiled. "All the difference." She touched his chin. "And then I waited for you."
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Mitch Albom |
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88241b3
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At times, there in heaven, the two of them would lie down together. But they did not sleep. On earth, Marguerite said, when you fell asleep, you sometimes dreamed your heaven and those dreams helped to form it. But there was no reason for such dreams now. Instead, Eddie held her shoulders and nuzzled in her hair and took long, deep breaths. At one point, he asked his wife if God knew he was here. She smiled and said, "Of course," even when ..
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Mitch Albom |
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ffdedb6
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Lost love is still love, Eddie. It takes a different form, that's all. You can't see their smile or bring them food or tousle their hair or move them around a dance floor. But when those senses weaken, another heightens. Memory. Memory becomes your partner. You nurture it. You hold it. You dance with it. Life has to end," she said. "Love doesn't."
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Mitch Albom |
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c2410d0
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It's natural to die," he said again. "The fact that we make such a big hullabaloo over it is all because we don't see ourselves as part of nature. We think because we're human we're something above nature." He smiled at the plant. "We're not. Everything that gets born, dies."
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Mitch Albom |
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3185a64
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The genius of life is its variety.
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Mitch Albom |
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fe2ec55
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but if aging were so valuable, why do people always say, "Oh, if I were young again." You never hear people say, "I wish I were sixty-five." He smiled. "You know what that reflects? Unsatisfied lives. Unfulfilled lives. Lives that haven't found meaning. Because if you've found meaning in your life, you don't want to go back. You want to go forward. You want to see more, do more. You can't wait until sixty-five. "Listen. You should know some..
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death
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Mitch Albom |
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674c602
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You might say that is "too young" to die. But what is too young for a life?" --
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Mitch Albom |
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bf8abf0
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So many people walk around with a meaningless life. They seem half-asleep, even when they're busy doing things they think are important. This is because they're chasing the wrong things. The way you get meaning into your life is to devote yourself to loving others, devote yourself to your community around you, and devote yourself to creating something that gives you purpose and meaning.
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inspirational
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Mitch Albom |
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3b83206
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All right. In that final minute, I would say, 'Look, Lord, I've done X amount of good stuff on earth. I have tried to follow your teachings and to pass them on. I have loved my family. I've been part of a community. And I have been, I think, fairly good to people. "'So, Heavenly Father, for all this, what is my reward?"' And what do you think God will say? He smiled. "He'll say, 'Reward?"
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Mitch Albom |
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9139ab4
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Why suffer in front of so many people?
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Mitch Albom |
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0e922ca
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Instead, he would make death his final project, the center point of his days.
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Mitch Albom |
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23ee52e
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The most important thing in life is to learn how to give out love, and to let it come in." His voice dropped to a whisper. "Let it come in. We think we don't deserve love, we think if we let it in we'll become too soft. But a wise man named Levine said it right. He said, 'Love is the only rational act.' " He repeated it carefully, pausing for effect. " 'Love is the only rational act."
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Mitch Albom |
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3cacb80
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Mitch," he said, "the culture doesn't encourage you to think about such things until you're about to die. We're so wrapped up with egotistical things, career, family, having enough money, meeting the mortgage, getting a new car, fixing the radiator when it breaks--we're involved in trillions of little acts just to keep going. So we don't get into the habit of standing back and looking at our lives and saying, Is this all? Is this all I want..
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Mitch Albom |
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450fdce
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And, age is not a competitive issue.
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Mitch Albom |
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ab52c62
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These were people so hungry for love that they were accepting substitutes. They were embracing material things and expecting a sort of hug back. But it never works, You can't substitute material things for love or for gentleness or for tenderness or for a sense of comradeship.
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Mitch Albom |
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b17282c
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Once you learn how to die, you learn how to live.
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life
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Mitch Albom |
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4773e12
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Take any emotion--love for a woman, or grief for a loved one, or what I'm going through, fear and pain from a deadly illness. If you hold back on the emotions--if you don't allow yourself to go all the way through them--you can never get to being detached, you're too busy being afraid. You're afraid of the pain, you're afraid of the grief. You're afraid of the vulnerability that loving entails. "But by throwing yourself into these emotions,..
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love
feeling
vulnerability
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Mitch Albom |
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24bcc27
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I thought about how often this was needed in everyday life. How we feel lonely, sometimes to the point of tears, but we don't let those tears come because we are not supposed to cry. Or how we feel a surge of love for a partner but we don't say anything because we're frozen with the fear of what those words might do to the relationship. Morrie's approach was exactly the opposite. Turn on the faucet. Wash yourself with the emotion. It won't ..
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loneliness
feelings
fear
vulnerability
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Mitch Albom |
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cefc3b8
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They were embracing material things and expecting a sort of hug back. But it never works. You can't substitute material things for love or for gentleness or for tenderness or for a sense of comradeship. "Money is not a substitute for tenderness, and power is not a substitute for tenderness. I can tell you, as I'm sitting here dying, when you most need it, neither money nor power will give you the feeling you're looking for, no matter how mu..
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materialism
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Mitch Albom |
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5e75f6c
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Mitch, if you're trying to show off for people at the top, forget it. They will look down at you anyhow. And if you're trying to show off for people at the bottom, forget it. They will only envy you. Status will get you nowhere. Only an open heart will allow you to float equally between everyone.
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Mitch Albom |
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4bcd58d
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I've learned this much about marriage," he said now. "You get tested. You find out who you are, who the other person is, and how you accommodate or don't."
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Mitch Albom |
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091ce3e
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But all endings are also beginnings.
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Mitch Albom |
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958fd31
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It's not just other people we need to forgive, Mitch," he finally whispered. We also need to forgive ourselves." Ourselves? "Yes. For all the things we didn't do. All the things we should have done. You can't get stuck on the regrets of what should have happened. That doesn't help you when you get to where I am."
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Mitch Albom |
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9c6b03a
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It's the blending of the different notes that makes the music.
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Mitch Albom |
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0855232
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simplicity and surrender to the universe.
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Mitch Albom |
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45f3761
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But the Reb, I'd learned, was like a tough old tree; he bent with the storms but he would not snap.
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Mitch Albom |
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4f23979
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I found I could share almost anything with Reb. He had a way of looking you in the eye and making you feel the world had stopped and you were all that was in it.
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Mitch Albom |
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311d9bd
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I thought you were a narcissist." Koppel burst into laughter. "I'm too ugly to be a narcissist," he said."
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Mitch Albom |
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023ac31
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If I can't see them or hear them, how can I help them?
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Mitch Albom |
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20712f7
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America had become a Persian bazaar of self-help. But there still seemed to be no clear answers.
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Mitch Albom |
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d342793
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Most religions warn against war, yet more wars have been fought over religion than perhaps anything else.
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Mitch Albom |
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680498a
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Remember this always: There is a reason God limits man's days." "What is the reason?" "Finish your journey and you will know."
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mitch-albom
the-time-keeper
wisdom
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Mitch Albom |
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fd5c10a
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You can't fit the Lord in a box. But you can gather stories, tradition, wisdom, and in time, you needn't lower the shelf; God is already nearer to thee.
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Mitch Albom |
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a33ce8b
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All right. In that final minute, I would say, 'Look, Lord, I've done X amount of good stuff on earth. I have tried to follow your teachings and to pass them on. I have loved my family. I've been part of a community. And I have been, I think, fairly good to people. "'So, Heavenly Father, for all this, what is my reward?"' And what do you think God will say? He smiled. "He'll say, 'Reward? What reward? That's what you were supposed to do!"
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Mitch Albom |
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d4605f1
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the power of language
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Mitch Albom |
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6f2c4f7
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faith is about doing. You are how you act, not just how you believe
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Mitch Albom |
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68fdd2d
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I wondered, now that his days were dwindling, how important ritual still was. "Vital," he said. But why? Deep inside, you know your convictions. "Mitch," he said, "faith is about doing. You are how you act, not just how you believe."
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Mitch Albom |