My Mother's Secret

How do you move when you feel like you can't go on.? You think of someone who needs you more.

If you choose to do the right thing, it's a conscious decision at first. Then it becomes second nature. You don't have to think about what is right because doing the right thing becomes who you are, like a reflex. Your actions with time become your character

Love is the only thing that you get more of when you give it away.

In all of us, there is a child that exists while we have our parents. With my mother gone, I feel a sadness for the loss of the child within myself.

Regret for the things we did can be tempered by time; it is regret for the things we did not do that is inconsolable. —SYDNEY J. HARRIS

I always thought that courageous people were those who were not afraid. Meeting Franciszka and her daughter, I realize that courageous people are afraid like everyone else. They just act despite the fear.

When we have much to lose, but still choose to do the right thing, we uncover the nobility that is within all of us. To endure what is unbearable and to do it with grace, that is how we know that we have arrived.

How do you move when you feel like you can't go on? You think of someone who needs you more.

She is softhearted yet strong willed. She is compassionate yet unwavering in principle. She is a loving mother, yet she risked my life to save others.

MY FATHER DOESN’T ARGUE WITH FACTS. He makes his points with attacks on the other person.

Funny how even the most successful people still need reassurance, wherever it may come from.

We all find our own place in the world but all of us are forever connected by a bond that will survive time and distance.

Pg 180 "love is the only thing that you get more of when you give it away

Pg 126 "We don't dream of exotic trips or adventures anymore. We dream of our old life and of our routines. We long to return to the world as we remembered it.

Helena, there are three kinds of people in the world. One that would have seen the suffering cat and not have given it a second thought. Another that would have seen the same cat and said to themselves, ‘Oh, isn’t that a pity,’ before continuing about their business. Finally, there is the kind who sees the suffering, feels the empathy, and then goes one step further by taking action to help. That is you. You didn’t leave the cat there to perish. I am proud that you are my daughter. Think what a wonderful place the world would be if everyone was like that.

Do you know when a woman is the most beautiful?” I answer, “When she is loved.

This is a world where to be insignificant, necessary, or connected is the best way to survive.

War gives you a sense of urgency about your life because there is so much death waiting for a chance. Maybe that's why it's possible to feel love in the midst of so much chaos.