The Five People You Meet on Earth
Tags: Authenticity, Writing Life, Self Improvement, Transformation, Self-awareness

Photo by frank mckenna on Unsplash

After trying to find a way to put this concept into words for a while, this morning I remembered Mitch Albom’s tiny, but powerful book, The Five People You Meet in Heaven. It’s probably been a while since you’ve read it, but when Eddie is killed in an accident, he is sent to heaven where he encounters 5 people that had an impact on his life. The interesting thing is, that during his life, he had no idea these people were impacting him in any significant way. These were not his parents guiding him through life. Not his teachers or clergy, helping form his sense of self. Just random, unsuspecting people doing small, ordinary things, quietly going about changing the course of his life. Unbeknownst to Eddie.

All Lives Intersect

Maybe it’s quarantine, maybe it’s 2020. Maybe it’s my own spiritual and reflective practice, but recently (and who knows, maybe always), the people put in my path have appeared at just the right times to answer a question, to provide support, or to shift my thinking. We are, after all, about to enter the Age of Aquarius! If you are one of those people that has recently showed up in my life, and you are reading this, thank you. You made a difference.

Now, this is not to say my family, my friends, and those relationships I rely on for my next breath aren’t important, because they are. It’s a side note. It’s me wondering, daydreaming, and analyzing, the importance and the serendipitous way The Universe or your God makes no mistakes. That every interaction matters.

Photo by Diego PH on Unsplash

“There are no random acts…We are all connected…You can no more separate one life from another than you can separate a breeze from the wind…”

― Mitch Albom, The Five People You Meet in Heaven

Here’s an example:

One project I am currently working on is non-fiction, and in no way a memoir. It’s about manifesting your best and most authentic writing life. In my approach to this book, I wrote an introduction that explained my personal, and difficult journey toward a writing life. I went on to disclose things I wasn’t sure I felt comfortable sharing. But as it’s one of my personal writing rules, I write what is coming to the forefront. I can always delete it, change it, or tuck it safely away, never to be seen by others. I was really struggling with the concept of writing the book and explaining to others how and why a writing life can be transformative, yet I preferred to keep the details of my own life on the journey toward transformation, private. I questioned if that even made sense. Could I write this book without sharing details my own life?

It was then I had a scheduled call with another writer who wanted to connect for the first time, as we lived in the same area. Without knowing anything about my project. She went on to describe her own manuscript and her autobiographical account of private struggles within herself, and within her family. Her vulnerable and unapologetic approach to her manuscript is what will make her story relatable to others. If she can tell her story, so can I, I decided. But, just the night before I had been typing my truth, committed to deleting it later.

Cape Porpoise, Maine (Didi Cooper)

Always drawn to Carl Jung and his writings, it’s starting to make sense to me. He writes, “The mirror does not flatter, it faithfully shows whatever looks into it; namely, the face we never show to the world because we cover it with the persona, the mask of the actor.” Is that what I have been doing my entire life? Shoot, is that what everyone is doing?

How to approach the people who appear in our lives

1. With an open heart and an open mind. The person who steps aside and opens the door for you may unknowingly, but intentionally, offer you a smile or a simple greeting that can change the course of your day. Don’t miss these moments by having your head in your phone.

2. Say yes. Say yes to new opportunities, to new ways to interact with people, especially during the pandemic. You could be passing up an interaction that is meant to help you on your journey.

3. Give as much as you receive. If not more. The time you spend sharing your experience with others will make you feel alive. Maybe you are meant to be a messenger, a healer, a story-teller. Why leave this life without sharing what might benefit others?

Photo by Priscilla Du Preez on Unsplash

Think about the last 30 or 60 days. Who has shown up to give you a message? Have you heard the message? Internalized it? Made use of it? Or did you miss it because you were wallowing in your own grief, misery, or inflated sense of self? And during the last few months, have you shared yourself and your experience with others? Or have you decided your work, your advice, your experience isn’t worthy.

If 2020 has taught me nothing else, it has taught me to keep my eyes and heart open so my soul has a chance to recognize divine messages disguised as common, ordinary interactions with other beautiful souls on their own journey.

Follow my writing journey on Instagram and on my website.