The Five People You Meet in Heaven

This week I started reading The Five People You Meet in Heaven by Mitch Albom. It started out with a very interesting comment: All endings are also beginnings, we just don’t know it at the time. Once I read this it got me thinking about what it meant. One could take this comment in so many different ways, because it could mean so many different things. I know that in this particular instance the author was referring to death being the ending and the afterlife being the new beginning, but I know that’s not the only thing that I could apply it to. There are little “endings” that happen all the time, like your favorite restaurant closing down, just to find that the one taking its place is even better. Things like this probably go by unnoticed, but I think that if we start to realize that not every ending is bad, and that you never know what beginning it will bring, it will keep us more optimistic and make our lives a little sweeter. There are also many big endings in people’s lives that are usually seen as a disaster. For example, a serious couple breaking up would probably be seen by both sides as a bad thing. However, once they meet someone else that they like even more, they will see that the break-up was a good thing because it gave them the opportunity to meet this better person. Thinking about this, I could come up with a few “endings” that had happened to me recently. Although these were all small things, I was able to look at them and think about the opportunities they could be creating. Once I considered this my feelings about these “endings” suddenly turned from upset to hopeful, and my overall mood was lifted. I am happy I have begun to read this book because with such an intriguing introduction sentence, I know that it will be interesting. I hope I find more of these thought-provoking ideas in the upcoming chapters of the book!