Mattie Jt Stepanek Quotes

Sad things happen. They do. But we don't need to live sad forever.

...if you live feeling like Your glass is half empty, well, It may as well be empty all the way.

Unity is strength... when there is teamwork and collaboration, wonderful things can be achieved.

Do not breathe simply to exist.

Even though the future seems far away, it is actually beginning right now.

Keep all special thoughts and memories for lifetimes to come. Share these keepsakes with others to inspire hope and build from the past, which can bridge to the future.

Sunset is still my favorite color, and rainbow is second.

How can we choose to continue Playing this deadly And impersonal game of loss?

While we are living in the present, we must celebrate life every day, knowing that we are becoming history with every work, every action, every deed.

There can be many different views of what Heaven is like, because Heaven is whatever makes each person eternally and fully happy.

Sunset is still my favorite color and rainbow is next

From there my friendship with Sandy grew. It wasn't just that we were both studying for advanced degrees, and it wasn't just that we both had less than ideal marriages that eventually ended in complicated divorce cases. For me it was that, unlike so many other people, Sandy didn't try to swoop in and make things all better like a hero, and she didn't run when my children died. It's extremely lonely being the mother of dying children. You can't share any of the normal milestones, the normal sense of community with other mothers. And people either want to solve the problem, which they can't or they want to leave when the situation becomes too difficult. It's not out of callousness. It's out of pain; watching children die is hard. But Sandy tried to neither fix nor flee; she just wanted to be my friend. And she helped in very real ways.

When Shelly brought the tapes to Chicago, she managed to convince the Oprah Winfrey Show staff that Mattie's segment needed to be more than how his disability felt. She told them she had been struck by how an eleven-year-old placed a higher priority on being a father someday and on relationships than on guns, cars, or the typical fantasies of a young boy. She that she went to our apartment to get "What is it like to suffer, to have your dying wishes granted?" and came back with "What is it like to be a peacemaker?