I really enjoyed this book. I came away from it with two impressions: First, that all of us matter to more people than we realize. That the simplest encounter can create a connection between two people that can last a lifetime. That random acts of kindness connect us to other people more strongly than we realize. Second, (as cheesy as it sounds) we all only get one chance to live our lives. When Laura's mother talks about wanting solitude so she could wait for something great and exciting to happen upon her, instead of either enjoying the exciting things she already had or going out and looking for those opportunities herself, I couldn't help but think that the author was making the point that we shouldn't wait until the afterlife to do the things we've always wanted to do.