Home > Work > Oliver: The True Story of a Stolen Dog and the Humans He Brought Together
1 " To be human is to endure hardship, and to endure hardship means that we are alive. And being alive is the greatest gift. "
― , Oliver: The True Story of a Stolen Dog and the Humans He Brought Together
2 " It isn’t so much what you have but what you believe that defines who you are and how you live. "
3 " The boy who was going to be president was not the man who had nothing. "
4 " I hadn’t cried for help; I’d screamed for help. And my call was answered. "
5 " I was possessed, crawling through the dirt with abandon to somehow get to Oliver. "
6 " We became inseparable, bound to each other in ways neither of us fully understood. All we knew for sure was that, as long as we were together, nothing could really hurt us. Together, we would always be okay. "
7 " Being so high above the din of the streets felt special and peaceful. It was like, after digging down into the nitty-gritty of Oliver’s theft, we were suddenly being given a broader overview. A new perspective. "
8 " Something was happening. Something bigger than me. My eyes were being opened to a greater truth about the world, an insight into our shared humanity, a close-up look at the extraordinary power of love and empathy. "
9 " God, I’m sorry for the words I spoke,” I said aloud, looking skyward. “I’m sorry I doubted you. I need to come back to you now. I know you were watching over me all along. "
10 " God, give me the strength I need to be truthful but not spiteful. Help me to use your tools, God, to find Oliver. "
11 " I’m not married. I have no family of my own. I drive people to airports for a living. And I live with my dog. That’s it. That’s all I have. That’s my life. So whoever took Oliver, they didn’t just take my cell phone or car or computer. They took my whole life. You’re looking at a broken man, And that’s why I’m here. I have love in my heart, and I need your help. "
12 " If you can endure tribulations and, as it says in Proverbs 3, “let love and faithfulness never leave you,” you will gain the wisdom that brings true well-being "
13 " If a man can fly, well then, I believe I flew down that street. For a brief moment, in my fifty-five years of living, I was finally the baseball hero rounding third base in game seven of the World Series, bursting with speed, madly dashing for victory, the crowd cheering for me to “Run! "
14 " We have to trust in the things that happen as happening for a reason. "
15 " I’m through trying to be whatever person I have been trying to be because, obviously, I’m doing something wrong,” I said to him. “I want you to take over. I’m not giving up. I’m just surrendering to you. I am done trying to fulfill whatever expectations I thought I had to fulfill. I want you to make me into the person I am supposed to be. "
16 " Friends reminded me I was loved; strangers shared my pain. A single block in a challenged neighborhood became my world, and I saw that this world was beautiful. Words of wisdom came from everywhere, filling my heart. "
17 " Losing Oliver allowed me to live again. "
18 " Steven and Oliver. Oliver and Steven. Always together. Take ‘em or leave ‘em. "
19 " I felt an awful, hard knot in my gut, like a punch — the mixture of shock and rage and vulnerability that comes with losing something that just a moment ago was there. The false, desperate hope that if you just look hard enough for it, the precious thing that was yours will still be yours because it belongs with you, right where you left it, and nowhere else. "
