The Five People You Meet In Heaven

"The Five People You Meet In Heaven" is a delightful, thought-provoking book written by Mitch Albom. If you have not read it, put it on your Christmas list. It is only a short book and is well worth the read. On the back cover it says: "On his eighty-third birthday, Eddie, a lonely war veteran, dies in a tragic accident trying to save a little girl from a falling cart. With his last breath, he feels two small hands in his – and then nothing. He awakens in the afterlife, where he learns that heaven is not a lush Garden of Eden but a place where your earthly life is explained to you by five people who were in it. These people may have been loved ones or distant strangers. Yet each of them changed your path forever."

I am sure I will not ruin the book for anyone by briefly highlighting the five basic lessons Eddie learns in Heaven. The book gives these lessons much more beautifully and powerfully than my simple summary ever could. The lessons are these:

· All of our life-stories are linked. How we treat one another makes a profound difference to all of our lives. What we say and do to others can have powerful effects on their lives – for good and for bad – without us ever knowing.

· Sacrifice is part of life. It is supposed to be there. It is not something to regret. It is something to aspire to. When we sacrifice something, we gain something in return.

· Forgiveness – to live life to the full and be the best person we can be, we must learn to forgive those who hurt us. "Holding anger is a poison. It eats you from inside. We think that hatred 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 does not have an end. When people die, love takes a different form, that's all. Our loved ones are still with us in our hearts and minds and one day we will see them again.

· Everyone has a purpose to life that not only affects their own lives but unknowingly touches the lives of others.

Valuable lessons about human life, wouldn't you agree? Yet, I think many people today shield their children from some or all of these lessons as they grow. Many children grow up believing that they are the centre of creation and that the world owes them whatever they want. They grow up believing that it's all about them and that others can look after themselves.

We could do a lot worse as parents, than to help our children learn the five lessons mentioned above, whenever opportunities present themselves. In teaching our children these simple but essential lessons, we not only help them to become more resilient themselves but also help them to become more selfless and more loving and caring of others. In the end, the extent to which we have enhanced the lives of others is a good measure of a life well lived.