Thoughts on Mitch Albom's Book

A friend of mine sent me an e-book of The 5 people You Meet in Heaven, by Mitch Albom.  I finished reading the book early last year, and I remember writing down the lines from the book which was worth reading over and over.  Somehow I forgot where I placed that notepad, until recently when I was cleaning up my desk, I found a piece of paper tucked into one of my folders.  I could barely understand some of the words as my handwriting resembled that of an ECG tracing. 

Anyway in the story, when Eddie died he was brought back to Ruby pier where he spent his childhood.  I liked the idea that when we eventually die we get to go back to certain significant aspects in our life.  I have always loved my childhood, and I think it would really be a good way to start a journey to the afterlife.  Anyway, I think in the story Eddie had some regrets in his life and some he still had to confront when he met the other people on his way to heaven.  That's one thing I hope I don't have when my time comes.  I hope that I could do what I am supposed to do while I am still here... no unfinished business as what they usually say. 

 

So here are some of my favorite lines from the book. 

•     The first lesson:  There are no random acts.  That we are all connected.  That you can no more separate one life from another, than you can separate a breeze from the wind.

•     The second lesson:  Sacrifice is a part of life.  It's supposed to be.  It's not something to regret.  It's something to aspire to.

    

• 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.

• Lost love is still love.  It takes different form, that's all.  You can't see their smile or bring them food or tousle their hair or move them around a dance floor.  But when those senses weaken, another heightens.  Memory.  memory becomes your partner.  You nurture it.  You hold it.  You dance with it.  Life has to end.  Love doesn't.

I chose them because somehow I could relate to it.  There are no random acts. TRUE. Things happen sometimes, even if you don't plan it they fall into place, and sometimes even if you do plan things, they don't happen the way you want them to.

I don't need to elaborate on sacrificing being a part of life because we all know it is, and I am sure we have had our own share of sacrifices in the past..

Anger is a poison. There was a point in my life that I was harboring some negative feelings towards a person, and somehow it's like there was always a dark cloud above me.  I realized that I had to let go of the anger because it was not allowing me to move forward.  It was not easy but eventually I did it, but to be honest even if you forgive sometimes it's just hard to forget, but I have learned to live with the pain.

My mind and my heart is where I keep beautiful memories of my life, what I have been through, things I learned, people I love and those who matters to me the most.  The author was right in saying Memory becomes your partner, because when all seems lost, you only have your memory to remind you of what has been,  When I like to reminisce
a certain memory, I close my eyes and pretend to hit a play button and it would all come back playing in my mind.  There are certain memories though, no matter how hard you try to remember, it just doesn't come back to you anymore.  I guess like any device, our minds has a certain limit to what it can store, so might as well keep beautiful memories alive and delete the not so good ones.

My Favorite Hobby

Reading is my favorite past time.  It has always been a hobby of mine that started when I was a kid.  From comic books, to Nancy Drews, Sweet Dreams and Sweet Valley High, and then I started to read  from authors like Sidney Sheldon, Judith McNaught, Nora Roberts and Danielle Steel.

A second hobby developed out of my love for reading, I also started to collect books, magazines and novels.  I remember having a book shelf at home with all my Sweet Dreams, Sweet Valley High and Danielle Steel novels alphabetically arranged according to title.  I also had a collection of Seventeen and Cosmopolitan magazines.  I would save up my allowance to buy myself a book or magazine at least once a week from the Booksale store that opened in Tacloban.  

 

 When I was about to transfer to Manila, I had to clean up my stuff and had to give some of them away, which included the novels and magazines I dearly treasured all these years.  A friend suggested I sell them to a book rental store downtown, in that way instead of rotting away and being eaten by termites in our "bodega". it would still be a source of joy to book lovers like me.  So some of my books went to that book rental store, some I gave away, but a few I kept with me, including my Danielle Steel novels which has traveled with me from Manila to Cebu where I am now currently based.  I am still a D.S. novel collector, but I also have a couple of e-books from other authors I store in my PC.  I don't think I would ever outgrow my love for reading, it's amazing how words can inspire you, take you to places you could only dream of going, it widens your imagination, make you laugh and cry at times.  Reading feeds the mind and nourishes the soul.