The Sweetness of Forgetting

Life doesn't work out the way we plan, but maybe it works out the way it's supposed to after all.

Some days I wake up and think, How did I get here? It's like one day, you just realize you're not young anymore, and you already made your choices, and now it's too late to change anything.

As long as there are stars in the sky, I will love you.

Yes. There is one God, and he lives in the sky, and he hears all of us. It is just that here on earth, we are confused about how to believe in him. But what does it matter, as long as we trust he is there?

Life changes you, even if you don’t realize it while it’s happening, and it turns out you can’t take back the years that have passed by.

I look to the right as I cross the bridge and smile to see the tip of the Eiffel Tower soaring over rooftops in the distance on the other side of the river. I've seen it in photographs a thousand times, but seeing it in person for the first time that reminds me that I'm really, truly here, thousands of miles away, across an ocean from home.

Yes, I am Jewish," she says. "But I am also Catholic." She pauses and adds, "And Muslim too." ... "It is all the same, is it not? It is mankind that creates the differences. That does not mean it is not all the same God.

We are not so different then."... "I never understood the war between our religions, or the war with Christianity. If there is one thing I learned from the time young Rose spent with us, it is that we are all speaking to the same God. It is not religion that divides man. It is good and evil here on earth that divides us.

Do you think God speaks Arabic or Hebrew? Can he hear your prayers or mine?"... "I do not know." "What do you think, Nabi?" The boy thought about this for a long time before replying. "I think God must speak all the languages." His tone was confident. "I think he can heal all of us.

Not that I regretted having Annie; I'd never felt that way for a second. I just regretted that I'd never had a chance to live the life I'd thought I was supposed to.

The more times we’ve been hurt, the harder it is to see love right in front of us, or to accept love into our hearts and truly believe in it. And if you cannot accept love, you can never really feel it.

Mamie used to tell me that each new morning was like unwrapping a gift from God.

Life is a series of opportunities, and you have to have the courage to seize them, before the years pass you by and leave you with nothing but regrets.

For it is only by loving, and having the courage to be loved in return, that you can find God, who exists most of all in

Life gets complicated. Circumstance tears us apart. Decisions guide our fate. But your heart will always show you true north.

It was the war that kept us apart. The world went mad, and your grandfather was no more responsible for the outcome than I was, or than Rose was. We all made our choices. We all had to live with our regrets.

You can only look forward in life. You can change the future, but not the past.

Life doesn’t work out the way we plan, but maybe it works out the way it’s supposed to after all. You know?

It’s never too late to find true love,” he says, locking eyes with me. “You just have to keep your heart open.

I mean that love is all around us,” Alain says. “But the older we get, the more confusing it becomes. The more times we’ve been hurt, the harder it is to see love right in front of us, or to accept love into our hearts and truly believe in it. And if you cannot accept love, you can never really feel it.

I never understood the discord between our religions. If there is one thing I learned from the time young Rose spent with us, it is that we are all speaking to the same God. It is not religion that divides man. It is good and evil here on earth that separates us.

There is no need to thank me. It was our duty. In our religion, we are taught, ‘Whoever saves one life, saves the entire world.’

But you never know what will happen tomorrow, or the next day. One day, one week, one month can change everything.

Because, my dear, it is good to remember that you do not always have to see something to know that it is there.

Hope, you were born to do this,” he says with his mouth full, and although I know it’s a compliment, the words hit me hard, because I never intended to do this at all. It wasn’t the life I wanted for myself, and Matt knows it. But my grandmother got sick, my mother died, and I no longer had a choice.

I smile tightly at him. I’m allowed to feel annoyed with my daughter, but he’s not. “She’s just going through a hard time,” I say.

it’s terrible to see her slipping away. It’s like standing on the deck of a boat, watching the waves suck someone under, and knowing that there’s no life preserver to throw in.

Maybe the lie wasn’t as wrong if it wasn’t uttered aloud.

It is mankind that creates the differences, she’d told me last week. That does not mean it is not all the same God.