She didn't dare to look up, but she could feel their frightened eyes hanging onto her as she hauled the words in and breathed them out. A voice played the notes inside her. This, it said, is your accordion.
Markus ZusakRead
I have spent my life waiting for something to happen,’ she said. ‘And I have come to understand that nothing will. Or it already has, and I blinked during that moment and it's gone. I don't know which is worse — to have missed it or to know there is nothing to miss.’ Falling Angels
Interpretation
The quote emphasizes the importance of recognizing and seizing moments, as waiting often leads to missed opportunities.
In this quote from Tracy Chevalier's 'Falling Angels', the speaker reflects on a life spent in anticipation for significant events or changes, only to realize that these moments may have already occurred unnoticed. This realization brings a sense of regret, highlighting the paradox of waiting for life to unfold against the inevitability of time passing, prompting a deeper contemplation of our perceptions and experiences as we navigate through life.
In practice
During a motivational speech about living in the present.
She didn't dare to look up, but she could feel their frightened eyes hanging onto her as she hauled the words in and breathed them out. A voice played the notes inside her. This, it said, is your accordion.
The hardest part of living without social media was remembering that my little life was enough, so I could just stay there and live it without asking for anyone else's permission or validation. I realized that for me, posting is like asking the world, 'Do you 'like' me?'
She was doing it because she had nothing to lose, because her life was one of constant, day to day frustration.
Don't plant your bad days. They grow into weeks. The weeks grow into months. Before you know it, you got yourself a bad year. Take it from me - choke those little bad days. Choke 'em down to nothing.
For in grief nothing "stays put." One keeps on emerging from a phase, but it always recurs. Round and round. Everything repeats. Am I going in circles, or dare I hope I am on a spiral? But if a spiral, am I going up or down it? How often -- will it be for always? -- how often will the vast emptiness astonish me like a complete novelty and make me say, "I never realized my loss till this moment"? The same leg is cut off time after time.
A lot of things you see as a child remain with you... you spend a lot of your life trying to recapture the experience.
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