10 Life Lessons I’ve Learned Through Researching My Books By J Merrill Forrest

27 October 2017

Author of ‘Flight of the Kingfisher’ and ‘The Waiting Gate’

J. Merrill Forrest

Everyone has a story

We might not like everyone we meet. It might be a matter of incompatible chemistry, but it could just be that they have experienced something that has made them brittle, wary or defensive. I’ve learned not to let first impressions influence me; it’s always worth delving a little deeper.

We are all wired differently

I am fascinated by the workings of the human brain and the more science uncovers it seems there is just as much still for us to learn.

A curious mind is a stronger mind

We cannot possibly know all there is to know, but absorbing as much as we can to gain a deeper understanding of the Universe holds makes us more interesting people.

There is an Afterlife

I have interviewed and had readings from several psychic mediums and have had evidence of the Afterlife. How else could they know such intimate details about my family members and friends who have passed away? I hadn’t known of a great uncle who died in the war until a medium told me about him, now I have photographs and a couple of poems he wrote.

I am not afraid of death

My brother died of cancer when he was 30, my father of heart failure at 76. I made the decision to switch off his life support, agonising for me, but I knew he was ready to cross over. I have watched friends get very sick and endure the most awful treatments that gave them no quality of life at the end. I have also known two women who died peacefully, one in her bed and the other in her armchair, her half-eaten supper still on her lap. We will all pass away somehow or other, it’s better not to dwell on how we will leave the physical world, think instead of one day being reunited with loved ones.

What we think about is what we get more of

Thinking negatively only brings more negativity into your life, so focus on the positive. Always.

It’s not what life throws at you but how you handle it that matters

Maybe you crumble when the going gets tough, but if you can pick yourself up and stand tall again you’ll be a stronger person for the experience.

No experience is wasted

When we’ve been through one of life’s trials we should look back on it and ask, what have I learned from that?

Grief is the price of love

It is most likely that someone you love will pass away before you. Even if you have, as I do, the belief that they are safe and happy on the Other Side, bereavement is the worst feeling we will ever know and simply has to be endured. We don’t ‘get over it’, we learn to accommodate the loss so we can carry on.