The BBCE
- Apr 13, 2020
- 3 min read

The BEST 12th Episode Ever : "The Choice: Embrace the Possible"

This book got FOUR THUMBS UP!!

*Grading Scale

A - All Good

B - Better than most

C - Could have been better

D - Disappointing

F - Failure on all levels

Ratings for this book

This book also got STRAIGHT As -- a BBCE Podcast FIRST!!! HOLLY IS THE WINNER!

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We continued our discussion of this book with the forth and final part - change.

Holly used this quote from the book to ask us a question that also led to her "winning" at making everyone cry.

"'Why now?,' I asked. This was my secret weapon. The question I always ask my patients on a first visit. I need to know why they are motivated to change. Why today, of all days, do they want to start working with me? Why is today different from yesterday, or last week, or last year? Why is today different from tomorrow? Sometimes our pain pushes us, and sometimes our hope pulls us.”

Other quotes mentioned in this section :

“Our painful experiences aren’t a liability—they’re a gift. They give us perspective and meaning, an opportunity to find our unique purpose and our strength.”

"Maybe to heal isn’t to erase the scar or even to make the scar, to heal is to cherish the wound."

"We have this hope as an anchor for our soul, firm and secure" Hebrews 6:19

Ideas for hosting a book club for The Choice: Embrace the Possible

Location - Outside at a park, in a living room or kitchen

Activity - Dancing lessons, A boob contest (like they had at Auschwitz), Take a walk, Make a Hungarian dinner, Go to the symphony or a ballet

Attire - Your favorite outfit that makes you feel special or reminds you of a specific time in you life (like Edith’s blue dress she wore when they were packing up)

Favor - A custom sign with one of the quotes from the book on it. “Time doesn't heal. It's what you do with the time. Healing is possible when we choose to take responsibility, when we choose to take risks, and finally, when we choose to release the wound, to let go of the past or the grief.”

Food -

Hungarian Chicken Paprikash

Challah

Strudel

Palacsinta

Music – The Blue Danube Waltz ; Romeo and Juliet Fantasy Overture ; Mendelson’s violin concerto played by a 6 year old

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Favorite quotes from the book

“Time doesn't heal. It's what you do with the time. Healing is possible when we choose to take responsibility, when we choose to take risks, and finally, when we choose to release the wound, to let go of the past or the grief.”

“You can’t heal what you can’t feel.”

“Anger, however all-consuming, is never the most important emotion, it is only the very outer edge, the thinly exposed top layer of a much deeper feeling. And the real feeling that’s disguised by the mask of anger is usually fear. And you can’t feel love and fear at the same time.”

“When we heal, we embrace our real and possible selves.”

“To heal we embrace the dark, we walk through the shadow of the valley on the way to the light.”

“It’s the first time I see that we have a choice: to pay attention to what we’ve lost or to pay attention to what we still have.”

“To forgive is to grieve—for what happened, for what didn’t happen—and to give up the need for a different past.”

“Survivors don't have time to ask, "Why me?" For survivors, the only relevant question is, "What now?”

“I don't want you to hear my story and say, "My own suffering is less significant." I want you to hear my story and say, "If she can do it, then so can I!”

“ But if there is one small piece of hell I miss, it is the part that made me understand that survival is a matter of interdependence, that survival isn’t possible alone.“

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