The Five People You Meet in Heaven

I recently read "The Five People You Meet in Heaven" by Mitch Albom. I had mixed feeling about the entire book, but what I thought was really powerful was the emphasis Albom puts on the fact that you never really know what impact you have on others and what impact they have on you. Albom constructs the book around the idea that after you die, you meet five people who explain to you what life is all about. These five people are not always those who you would expect. The five people that the main character is confronted with are an odd mixture of people he knew very well to people he never met. I often think about the fact that we never know what we do that could change someone else. A single kind word to someone you barely know when they are having a bad day can make a world of difference to that person. I am amazed day after day when a small gesture from someone else manages to change my entire mood. Just yesterday, I was tired and grumpy when a friend of mine called me out of the blue (all the way from Russia!), and after speaking to her for a little while, I found that I couldn't even fathom why I had been down to begin with. "The Five People You Meet in Heaven" definitely offered big lessons to be learned. It spoke volumes about love, family, and the influence that can be made on someone you never even meet.