Leaving Time

by Jodi Picoult

the universe wants from us is two things: Don’t do any intentional harm to yourself or anyone else, and get happy.

“Sometimes I think there’s no such thing as falling in love. It’s just the fear of losing someone.”

There are an endless number of people who have left a love-shaped hole in the heart of someone else. Eventually someone brave and stupid will come along and try to fill that hole. But it never works, and so instead, that selfless soul winds up with a gap in his heart, too. And so on. It’s a miracle that anyone survives, when so much of us is missing.

This is what curiosity gets you. You might live on top of the biggest toxic waste dump on the planet, but if you never dig, then all you ever know is that your grass is green and your garden is lush.

If you think about someone you’ve loved and lost, you are already with them. The rest is just details.