Life Isn’t a Dress Rehearsal
Get a life. A real life, not a manic pursuit of the next promotion, the bigger paycheck, the larger house.
Get a life in which you are not alone. Find people you love, and who love you. And remember that love is not leisure, it is work. Pick up the phone. Send an e-mail. Write a letter. Get a life in which you are generous.
And realize that life is the best thing ever, and that you have no business taking it for granted.
It is so easy to waste our lives, our days, our hours, our minutes.
It is so easy to take for granted the color of our kids’ eyes, the way the melody in a symphony rises and falls and disappears and rises again...
It is so easy to exist instead of to live.
I learned to live many years ago. Something really, really bad happened to me, something that changed my life in ways that, if I had my option, it would never have been changed at all. And what I learned from it is what, today, seems to be the hardest lesson of all:
I learned to love the journey, not the destination.
I learned that it is not a dress rehearsal, and that today is the only guarantee you get.
I learned to look at all the good in the world and try to give some of it back because I believed in it, completely and utterly. And I tried to do that, in part, by telling others what I had learned.
By telling them this: Consider the lilies of the field. Look at the fuzz on a baby’s ear. Read in the backyard with the sun on your face. Learn to be happy.
And think of life as a terminal illness, because if you do, you will live it with joy and passion as it ought to be lived.
要过有意义的生活，真正的生活，而不是狂热地追求晋升、加薪和更大的房子。
不要孤立地活着，找到你爱的人和爱你的人。并要记住：爱不是休闲，而是工作。打个电话，发个邮件，写封信，要活得慷慨、活得大度。
生活是最美好的，我们要加倍珍惜。
虚度生命很容易，一天，一小时，一分钟很快就会过去。
我们易于忽视孩子的想法，不注意交响乐旋律的升降变化。
我们可能会为了活着而活着，而非真正地生活。
多年以前，我就知道了生命的意义。那时，不幸降临到了我身上，改变了我的生活。要是当时我做出了明智的选择，完全可以避免这种不幸的发生。现在看来，那是我此生中一个最大的教训，我从中学会了好多：
我学会了享受过程，而非结果。
我懂得了生活没有彩排，我们能把握的只有现在。
我学会了发现世界上所有事物的真善美，然后奉献出一部分，因为我对真善美深信不疑，并且也在努力去践行，其中一种方式便是告诉他人我所学到的。
我告诉他们：想想田野里的百合花；看看婴儿耳朵上的绒毛；在后院的阳光下读书；开心地活着。
把生命当成某种不治之症的晚期，这样，你就会活得快乐且富有激情，而人就应该这样生活。
1. Get a life in which you are not . Find people you love, and who love you. And remember that is not leisure, it is work. Pick up the ____. Send an e-mail. Write a letter. Get a in which you are generous.
2. It is so to take for granted the color of our kids’ , the way the melody in a symphony rises and and disappears and rises again...
3. I learned that it is not a rehearsal, and that today is the guarantee you get.
1. 虚度生命很容易，一天，一小时，一分钟很快就会过去。
2. 我们可能会为了活着而活着，而非真正地生活。
3. 我学会了享受过程，而非结果。
1. It is so easy to exist instead of to live.
instead of：代替；不是……而是……
2. And I tried to do that, in part, by telling others what I had learned.
in part：部分地；在某种程度上