The Gift
Managed to finish this in one reading…
And had me crying my heart out at the ending…
Good read -
for anyone who has forgotten how to appreciate the important things
for people who viewed time as a luxury and “me” as the galaxy
for those who have lost themselves and what they are looking for in life
An excerpt of the ending:
One thing of great importance can affect a small number of people. Equally so, a thing of little importance can affect a multitude. Either way, a happening - big or small - can affect an entire string of people. Occurrences can join us all together.
You see, we’re all made up of the same stuff. When something happens, it triggers something inside us that connects us to a situation, connects us to other people, lighting us up and linking us like little lights on a Christmas Tree, twisted and turned but still connected on a wire. Some go out, others flicker, others burn strong and bright, yet we’re all on the same line.
I said at the beginning of this story that this was about a person who finds out who they are. About a person who is unravelled and their core is revealed to all that count. And that all that count are revealed to them. You thought I was talking about Lou Suffern (note: the lead), didn’t you? Wrong. I was talking about us all.
A lesson finds the common denominator and links us all together, like a chain. At the end of that chain dangles a clock, and on the face of the clock the passing of time is registered. We hear it, the hushed tick-tock sound that breaks any silence, and we see it, but often we don’t feel it. Each second makes its mark on every single person’s life; comes and then goes, quietly disappearing without fanfare, evaporating into air like steam from a piping hot Christmas pudding. Enough time leaves us warm; when our time is gone, it too leaves us cold.
Time is more precious than gold, more precious than diamonds, more precious than oil or any valuable treasures. It is time we do not have enough of; it is time that causes the war within our hearts, and so we must spend it wisely. Time cannot be packaged and ribboned and left under trees for Christmas morning.
Time can’t be given. But it can be shared.”
~~ Cecelia Ahern (The Gift, 2009)
