The Time Keeper

“We all yearn for what we have lost. But sometimes, we forget what we have.” 
- Mitch Albom

We are always thinking about time. We count it by year down to its smallest measurement. Sometimes we wish it would speed up or slow down. But what happens if time stops?

This is a story of 3 people. One who wanted to stop time. Another who wanted to slow it while the other who wanted to extend it.

This is another book you can't put down once you started reading. Mitch Albom never fails to amaze me with his way of writing. Quoted from the book, “Remember this always: There is a reason God limits man’s days.” “What is the reason?” “Finish your journey and you will know.”

I recommend that you read this book. Journey with these 3 characters and life's great lesson. 

Here are some extracts from the book that I've highlighted:

-Man alone measures time. Man alone chimes the hour. And, because of this, man alone suffers a paralyzing fear that no other creature endures. A fear of time running out. -p27

-That night he observed a quarter moon through the clouds, and he used it to mark the moment, the light of the night they were wed. -p44

-Consider the word “time.” -p48

-Before you measure the years, you measure the days.p78

-Learn what you do not know...“Understand the consequences of counting the moments.” -p106

-He was watching Dor the way a father watches a sleeping son. p102

-“Learn what you do not know,” the old man said. “Understand the consequences of counting the moments.” p106

-People fretted over missed chances, over inefficient days; they worried constantly about how long they would live, because counting life’s moments had led, inevitably, to counting them down. Soon, in every nation and in every language, time became the most precious commodity.P135

-But man invents nothing God did not create first. p152

-Mankind is connected in ways it does not understand—even in dreams. P152

-“You marked the minutes,” the old man said. “But did you use them wisely? To be still? To cherish? To be grateful? To lift and be lifted?” p173

-“Remember this always: There is a reason God limits man’s days.”

“What is the reason?” “Finish your journey and you will know.” p174

-Then a French mathematician tied a string to a timepiece, put it around his wrist, and man began to wear time on his body.

-“What time is it?” became one of the world’s most common questions, found on page one of every foreign-language instruction book. p235

-But a man who can take anything will find most things unsatisfying. And a man without memories is just a shell. p270

-“We all yearn for what we have lost. But sometimes, we forget what we have.” p294

-But you grab a moment, or you let it pass. p313

-…knowing something and understanding it were not the same thing. p321

-And when hope is gone, time is punishment. p351

-What was the constant? Movement. Yes. With time there was

always movement. The setting sun. The dripping water. The pendulums. The spilling sand. p359

-…hurting ourselves to inflict pain on others is just another cry to be loved. p414

-Time is not something you give back. The very next moment may be an answer to your prayer. To deny that is to deny the most important part of the future.”

“What’s that?”

“Hope.” p425

-“Ends are for yesterdays, not tomorrows.” p426

-“With endless time, nothing is special. With no loss or sacrifice, we can’t appreciate what we have.” p450

-There was always a quest for more minutes, more hours, faster progress to accomplish more in each day. The simple joy of living between sunrises was gone. p453

-Man wants to own his existence. But no one owns time.” p453

-But fates are connected in ways we don’t understand. p459

-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. p467

-..someplace far away— someplace indescribable in the pages of a book—a man named Dor and a woman named Alli run barefoot up a hillside, tossing stones, laughing with their children, and time never crosses their minds.

Photo: Abellardo Morell