Book 09-03: The Five People You Meet in Heaven

Again, a book recommended by my sister. She said it was a good read, so I gave it a try. If it weren't for her recommendation, I would not even think of picking up this book. I blame it on Mitch Albom's first book, Tuesdays with Morrie. Actually no, I blame it on the people who said it was sooo good because it gave me sky-high expectations for the book. If you think about it, I have to blame myself for having high expectations for the book.

It is a good book. There were good life lessons to be learned from it. Since I am a sucker for quotable quotes about life and love, I enjoyed reading this book.

Apparently when we die, we will get to meet 5 persons who have had a significant effect in our lives. They could be just anyone, even people we don't know. Even the smallest decisions could impact our lives in a big way. There are 5 people you meet in heaven and each have been in your life for a reason. You may have not known the reason at the time, and that is what heaven is for. For understanding your life on earth. Does this mean that we shouldn't try finding meaning in our lives while we're still alive since we're bound to know the reason when we die? I guess we just have to enjoy life as it comes, no? When we try to be profound we would be just wasting time on trying make sense of it all. This is the greatest gift God can give to you: to understand what happened in your life. To have it explained. It is the peace you've been searching for.

Here are some nice snippets from the book:

All endings are also beginnings. We just don't know it at the time.

Every life has one true-love snapshot... He used to think a lot about Marguerite. Not so much now. She was like a wound beneath an old bandage, and he had grown more used to bandage.

There are no random acts. We are all connected. You can no more separate one life from another than you can separate a breeze from the wind.

It is because the human spirit knows, deep down, that all lives intersect. That death doesn't just take someone, it misses someone else, and in the small distance between being taken and being missed, lives are changed.

No life is a waste. The only time we waste is the time we spend thinking we are alone.

Holding anger is a poison. It eats you from inside. We think that hating is a weapon that attacks the person who harmed us. But hatred is a curved blade. And the harm we do, we do to ourselves.

People say they "find" love, as if it were an object hidden by a rock. But love takes many forms, and it is never the same for any man and woman. What people find then is a certain love.

I was sad because I didn't do anything with my life. I was nothing. I accomplished nothing. I was lost. I felt like I wasn't supposed to be there.

From all the quotes above, I could relate most with the last. I always felt as if I had accomplished nothing and I am scared that the clock is ticking and I still haven't proved myself. Reading this book has consoled me in a way. It made me think that somehow, the reason why I exist doesn't have to one big, obvious explanation why I am alive. And for that, I will not waste my life sulking why I can't be this or that. Sabi nga sa Slumdog Millionaire, It is written.

Amen.



Next book: EVEolution