Finding Noel...

So, I started reading this amazing book yesterday. It's a new release called Finding Noel, by Richard Paul Evans. For those of you who don't know, I'm in this "self actualization" stage of life, and all the books I'm reading kinda fall into this category. Most of the are fictional stories (although almost always based on fact) and parallel beliefs about life's great mysteries: love, religion, and the pursuit of happiness.

That being said, I thought I would share quotes and excerpts from this book that I find to be valuable. It's a story of a guy who has a chance meeting with a woman, whose sheer entrance into his life because a course of change that he would never imagine. He's sufered great loss, is severly depressed, has had his heart broken, and is severly downtrodden....to the point that he is ready to end his life. Then, with one tiny incident, his life takes amazing turns...

So here's goes:

"When I was a boy, my mother told me that everyone comes into our lives for a reason. I'm not sure if I believe that's true. The thought of God weaving millions of lives together into a grand human tapestry seems a bit fatalistic to me. Still, as I look back at my life, there seem to be times when such divinity is apparent. None is more obvious to me than that winter evening when I met a beautiful young woman named Macy and there ensued the extraordinary chain of events that encounter set in place.

Of course such a theory carried to the extreme would mean that God sabotaged my car that night because, had my car's timing belt no broken at that precise moment, this story would never have happened. But it did, and my life was forever changed. Perhaps my mother was right. If God can align the planets, maybe He can do the same to our lives."

"If love isn't blind it's at least horribly nearsighted."

"I now believe that under the right circumstances we are all capable of things we'd never think possible."

'My mother used to say, "Man's extremities are God's opportunities." She also used to say, "Be kind to everyone - you don't know what cross they're bearing and how sweet that kind word might ring."

"That night was the start of a journey that taught me that one truth can change everything."

"Nothing heals the soul like chocolate," she said. " I just love chocolate. It's God's apology for broccoli."

"I can't believe I'm telling you all this."/"We always tell our deepest secrets to strangers."/"Why do you think that is?"/ "Maybe it's because they can't use them against us."

"All bad things pass with time. YOu can trust me on that."

"My mother was right. Angels do walk on earth."

"I've wondered why it is that some people come through difficult times bitter and broken while others emerge stronger and more empathetic? I've read that the same breeze that extinguishes some flames just fans others. I still don't know what kind of flame I am."