I wonder who The Five People I'm Gonna Meet in Heaven?!

Since the arrival of the kids, time seemed to be so out of the way for my passion for reading. And I've been wanting really to rekindle this leisure pursuit. I'm just happy that finally I'm into it again and so I made a vow of reading at least one book per week.

Back in the shelf, I got Mitch Albom's "The Five People You Meet in Heaven" . I wonder why he chose among many a "Filipino child" to be the fifth person whom Eddie (the protagonist) met in heaven? Is there a special connection, a memory of some sort of the Philippines to Mitch Albom? Anyhow, it made me feel glad that the last person in the book who awakened Eddie on how valuable his life on earth was a Filipino. I was truly moved by the story of this book. It tells us of sacrifice, forgiveness and love. It displays the value of human life further teaching us how to discover its meaning and how we should live it. Two thumbs up for Mitch Albom!

Here are some noteworthy lines from the story and I quote:

"People think of heaven as a paradise garden, a place where they can float on clouds and laze in rivers and mountains. But Scenery without solace is meaningless."

"This is the greatest gift God can give you: to understand what happened in your life. To have it explained. It is the peace you have been searching for."

"When you are an outcast, even a tossed stone can be cherished."

"Fairness, does not govern life and death. If it did, no good person would ever die young."

"Strangers are just family you have yet to come to know."

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

"Time is not what you think. Dying? Not the end of everything. We think it is. But what happens on earth is only the beginning."

"Sacrifice is a part of life. It's supposed to be. It's not something to regret, it's something to aspire to. Sometimes when you sacrifice something precious, you're not really losing it. You're just passing it on to someone else."

"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. "

"Love, like rain can nourish from above, drenching couples with a soaking joy. But sometimes, under the angry heat of life, love dries on the surface and must nourish from below, tending to its roots, keeping itself alive."