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3d7e045
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Man wants to own his existence. But no one owns time.
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Mitch Albom |
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f4a7c39
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As life goes on, you will join other bands, some through friendship, some through romance, some through neighborhoods, school, an army. Maybe you will all dress the same, or laugh at your own private vocabulary. Maybe you will flop on couches backstage, or share a boardroom table, or crowd around a galley inside a ship. But in each band you join, you will play a distinct part, and it will affect you as much as you affect it.
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Mitch Albom |
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bad72cd
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There are five people you meet in heaven," the Blue Man suddenly said. "Each of us was in your life for a reason. You may not have known the reason at the time, and that is what heaven is for. For understanding your life on earth."
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Mitch Albom |
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24e04f3
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You cannot write if you do not read," the blind man said. "You cannot eat if you do not chew. And you cannot play if you do not"--he grabbed for the boy's hand--"listen."
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Mitch Albom |
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bb76689
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It's like going back to being a child again. Someone to bathe you. Someone to lift you. Someone to wipe you. We all know how to be a child. It's inside all of us. For me, It's just remembering how to enjoy it.
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Mitch Albom |
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2c0b125
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What you have done to this point cannot be undone. What you do next... It is still unwritten.
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Mitch Albom |
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f993520
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She cared. She gave a crap. When I lacked even the self-respect to keep myself alive, she dabbed my cuts and I fell back into being a son; I fell as easily as you fall into your pillow at night. And I didn't want it to end. That's the best way I can explain it. I knew it was impossible. But I didn't want it to end.
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Mitch Albom |
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6afe3f1
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Faith, it is said, is better than belief, because belief is when someone else does the thinking.
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Mitch Albom |
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ca7f826
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my thoughts are not your thoughts, neither are your ways my ways" from the book of Isaiah"
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Mitch Albom |
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192be60
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And in that line now was a whiskered old man, with a linen cap and a crooked nose, who waited in a place called the Stardust Band Shell to share his part of the secret of heaven: that each affects the other and the other affects the next, and the world is full of stories, but the stories are all one.
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Mitch Albom |
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baa241d
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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.
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material-things
substitute
money
love
gentleness
tenderness
power
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Mitch Albom |
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d9bdd42
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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... Rabazzo didn't die for nothing, you know. He sacrificed for his country, and his family knew it, and his kid brother went on to become a good soldier and a great man because he was..
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Mitch Albom |
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376eb37
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To these people, unhappiness was a condition, an intolerable state of affairs. If pills could help, pills were taken. But pills were not going to change the fundamental problem in the construction. Wanting what you can't have. Looking for self-worth in the mirror. Layering work on top of work and still wondering why you weren't satisfied - before working some more.
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Mitch Albom |
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59d8faf
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Yet all around you, timekeeping is ignored. Birds are not late. A dog does not check its watch. Deer do not fret over passing birthdays. Man alone measures time. Man alone chimes the hour. And because of this, man alone suffers a paralyzing fear that no other creatures endures. A fear of time running out.
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Mitch Albom |
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c46b575
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We do not realize the sound the world makes -- unless, of course, it comes to a stop. Then, when it starts, it sounds like an orchestra.
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Mitch Albom |
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593d553
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Before you measure the years, you measure the days.
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Mitch Albom |
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681a3c7
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Soon man will count all his days, and then smaller segments of the day, and then smaller still--until the counting consumes him, and the wonder of the world he has been given is lost.
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Mitch Albom |
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ede9914
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People think of heaven as a paradise garden, a place where they can float on clouds and laze in rivers and mountains. But scenery without solace is meaningless.
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Mitch Albom |
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122296f
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That there are no random acts. That we are all connected. That you can no more separate on life from another than you can separate a breeze from the wind.
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mitch albom |
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8a6893a
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Do not worry about tomorrow, for tomorrow will worry about itself..
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Mitch Albom |
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0aa81d0
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But you cannot change your past, no matter how you craft your future.
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Mitch Albom |
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cb417d0
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Sitting high above the city, Father Time realized that knowing something and understanding it were not the same thing.
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Mitch Albom |
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b1c4f72
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There is a time for hello and a time for good-bye. It's why the act of burying thing seems natural, but the act of digging them up does not.
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Mitch Albom |
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06e8e47
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If you find one true friend in life, you're richer than most. If that one true friend is your husband, you're blessed.
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Mitch Albom |
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309817d
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Kids chase the love that eludes them, and for me, that was my father's love. He kept it tucked away, like papers in a briefcase. And I kept trying to get in there.
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Mitch Albom |
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5eac907
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and that is what heaven is for, for understanding your life on Earth.
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Mitch Albom |
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99cf71a
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I shot you, all right," he said, "and you lost something, but you gained something as well. You just don't know it yet. I gained something, too." What?" I got to keep my promise. I didn't leave you behind."
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life
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Mitch Albom |
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448dce2
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There is no formula to relationships. They have to be negotiated in loving ways, with room for both parties, what they want and what they need, what they can do and what their life is like.
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relationships
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Mitch Albom |
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e059d25
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Bad news has no limits. We often feel it should, like a rainstorm that can't possibly get any heavier. But a storm can always worsen, & the burdens of life can too.
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Mitch Albom |
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102c1fd
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You have to find what's good and true and beautiful in your life as it is now. Looking back makes you competitive. And, age is not a competitive issue.
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competitive-issue
true
good
life
beautiful
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Mitch Albom |
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27d079f
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Mothers support certain illusions about their children, and one of my illusions was that I liked who I was, because she did. When she passed away, so did that idea.
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Mitch Albom |
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13d5aa8
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To know you're going to die, and to be prepared for it at any time. That's better. That way you can actually be more involved in your life while you're living.
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Mitch Albom |
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958673e
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You don't know how to live until you learn how to die.
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Mitch Albom |
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7593e68
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For many of us, the curtain had just come down on childhood.
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Mitch Albom |
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b29d747
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YOU TAKA MY SPACE I BREAKA YOUR FACE
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Mitch Albom |
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15d62f3
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Time flies with you
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mitch-albom
the-time-keeper
thoughtful
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Mitch Albom |
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5cc73de
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You'll come to my grave? To tell me your problems?" My problems? "Yes.' And you'll give me answers? "I'll give you what I can. Don't I always?" I picture his grave, on the hill, overlooking the pond, some little nine foot piece of earth where they will place him, cover him with dirt, put a stone on top. Maybe in a few weeks? Maybe in a few days? I see myself sitting there alone, arms across my knees, staring into space. It won't be the same..
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Mitch Albom |
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5636127
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In every artist's life, there comes a person who lifts the curtain on creativity. It is the closest you come to seeing me again. The first time, when you emerge from the womb, I am a brilliant color in the rainbow of human talents from which you choose. Later, when a special someone lifts the curtain, you feel that chosen talent stirring inside you, a bursting passion to sing, paint, dance, bang on drums. And you are never the same.
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Mitch Albom |
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d14212b
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It is too late." The old man shook his head. "It is never too late or too soon. It is when it is supposed to be." He smiled. "There is a plan, Dor."
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time
inspirational
late
plan
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Mitch Albom |
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fa67ce4
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but then she did. she died. no more visits, no more phone calls. And without even realizing it, I began to drift, as if my roots had been pulled, as if I were floating down some side branch of a river.
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Mitch Albom |
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5424f34
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No one gets left behind, remember?
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five-people-you-meet-in-heaven
war
left-behind
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Mitch Albom |
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ca10967
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Personally, I always wondered about authors and celebrities who loudly declared there was no God. It was usually when they were healthy and popular and being listened to by crowds. What happens, I wondered, in the quiet moments before death? By then, they have lost the stage, the world has moved on. If suddenly, in their last gasping moments, through fear, a vision, a late enlightenment, they change their minds about God, who would know?
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god
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Mitch Albom |
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a846726
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That's the thing when people leave us too suddenly, isn't it? We always have so many questions.
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Mitch Albom |
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51ceec6
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Being unheard is the ground floor of giving up, and giving up is the ground floor of doing yourself in. It's not so much, what's the point? It's more like, what's the difference?
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ground-floor
suicide
loss
death
life
give-up
unheard
giving-up
difference
purpose
point
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Mitch Albom |