June 6, 2011

Where do we go now?

You know those moments when you meet someone who you know will change your life forever? I read The Five People You Meet in Heaven the other day and have been thinking about the lessons and stories that are told within the pages of that book. They are as follows:

1. When one person dies or leaves our life we shouldn't focus on the loss, rather we should focus on how we can grow by having had known that person. "Birth and death are part of a whole".

2. Always aspire to sacrifice. For you do not know how one small sacrifice might help to improve someone else's life.

3. We should always forgive, "Holding anger is a poison. It eats you from the 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."

4. "Life has to end...Love doesn't". Love should always be our number one goal, above anything else.

5. Even if we don't think we are where we are supposed to be in our lives, we need to trust that we are on the right path. We all have a purpose, even though we might not see it right now.

School is ending, and graduates worldwide are being told they can do anything. We can change the world. We have the tools and opportunity to make civilization better. And to some, this might be comforting to hear. We can change the world.

But I find this horribly intimidating. I do want to change the world, but I only want to change it for the better. If I had it my way war would end, diseases would stop spreading, and every person on this planet would never feel hunger, pain, or sadness. And my greatest fear is that I will do something to change the world for the worse!

But I find my hope in the last sentence of Five People.  Eddie, the main character, share's his lesson about life; we should know, "that each affects the other and the other affects the next, and the world is full of stories, but the stories are all one."

We are all one people. And what I do in my life will inevitably affect the whole. In the five lessons listed above I see one motif that all share; love. And I know that the Beatles said it better when they simply said, "All you need is Love". But that is where this rambling has gotten me. Maybe all we do need is love. Love for ourselves; which gives us hope and trust in the future. Love for others; which allows us to be our best self in our community. And Love for Love; so we can continually be inspired.


On a more personal level. I graduated from college in May with my Bachelors in History with minors in Women, Gender and Sexuality Studies; and Education. I will being my Masters program to get my Masters in the Art of Teaching in July. It's summer so you will probably hear more of my ramblings until the work picks up!