Recently, because of a good friend, I have picked up two books that have really taught me some valuable lessons. I’ve mentioned before that I’m not much of a reader, particularly because I have no time to read ( except for school books, that’s for my teachers). “The Five People You Meet In Heaven,” and “For One More Day” are written by Mitch Albom. Both of these books contain a great story line ( or multiple) but a long with the story line comes little lessons out of each.
“The Five People You Meet In Heaven” is about a guy who dies (shocking). After he dies, he is brought to “heaven” or how it is interpreted in the book. There, he meets five people that has somehow shaped his life or he made an impact in theirs. The whole idea is that these people wait for you because you did something that impacted their lives. This guy meets his old navel officer, a girl he killed, a guy who got in a car accident because of him and his deceased wife. Each one had a different story to tell him about his life and about he had impacted it.
Throughout the book, I didn’t know what it was exactly leading towards, but I knew the ending would bring it all together. When I finished, I kept thinking how crazy it is that he met such random people. When people generally think of heaven, they think going back to see their family, friends and God. This got me thinking about the impact we have on people we see everyday, whether we know it or not. Someone you pass in traffic, or say hi to at the grocery store or even someone you never even knew crossed paths with you.
The lesson I learned from this was kind of similar to the next book but it was to really think about the way you treat people and the way you act around them. Every action has a reaction ( Now I’m just trying to sound smart). But really, we don’t know who we could be seeing for the last time or saying hi to. Anything can happen in the matter of seconds and I really feel that people don’t realize that until that “something” happens for them and time is up.
“For One More Day,” was a little bit different story line. The guy in the story has fallen out from his family, friends and everyone around him and decides it’s time to take his own life. The story is retold in his words which I feel was crucial to get the right effect. It is about how he chose to look up to his dad even though his mom was there to give him endless love. His parents ended up divorcing and he scarcely saw his dad. While his mom was there the whole time to love him, he took this for granted. In between chapters there are little stories titled “ Times my mother stood up for me” and “Times I did not stand up for my mother.”
This got me thinking, we all go through that age where we are teenagers and want nothing to do with our parents (been there done that). We also grow up and appreciate the things not only our parents have done but also teachers and friends.
Once the guy in the story tries to commit suicide he is brought to his mothers doorstep. Even he wasn’t sure if she was a ghost or he was in real life but he knew it was too good to be true. He was able to spend a full day with his mom after she had passed and throughout the “day” (book in this case) he realizes how much he took for granted. They talked about the past and why his parents had divorced, his childhood and his adulthood before he fell off and tried to end his life. Imagine being able to spend one more day with someone you lost?
I won’t ruin the ending for anyone who doesn’t want to read it, but it really brought around full circle the love that our parents have for us. Not only our parents, but we really can’t take for granted the people who care about us. The three main take-always I got out of this book are:
1. “When someone is in your heart, they’re never truly gone. They come back to you, even at unlikely times.” - This really spoke to me and to anyone who has every lost someone, it should speak to you too. You know that no matter what, that person will be in the back of your head. People might leave earth, but they never leave our hearts.
2. Belief, hard work, and love- with these things, you can do anything. - Those three things are what it takes to succeed I believe. If you believe, whether it be God, yourself or in other people, you can make it. Hard work speaks for itself. Work hard and reap the benefits. The last is love. Not just the “I love you” kind of love, but the love you have for what you do and the love you have for people around you. If you don’t have that, you won’t enjoy living.
3.There’s a story behind everything- How true is that? You didn’t just wake up one day and appear on earth, there is a way and a story of how you got here, how we all got here. Everything you do, has a story. What’s your story?
