the alchemist

Lisa and i stumbled upon Brazilian writer Paulo Coelho's first book "The Alchemist" about a year ago. he basically writes parables...fables for adults. each book has a central theme, most of them involving a bit of spirituality. the theme of "The Alchemist" is to follow your dreams. as i read the book i took notes and thought i'd share them here:

• people are afraid to pursue their most important dreams, because they feel that they don’t deserve them. or that they’ll be unable to achieve them. their hearts become fearful just thinking of loved ones who go away forever, or of moments that could have been good be weren’t, or of treasures that might have been found but were forever hidden in the sands. because, when these things happen, we suffer terribly.


• the fear of suffering is worse than the suffering itself. no heart has ever suffered when it goes in search of its dreams, because every second of the search is a second’s encounter with God and with eternity.


• when i have been truly searching for my treasure, every day has been luminous, because i’ve known that every hour was a part of the dream that i would find it. when i have been truly searching for my treasure, i’ve discovered things along the way that i never would have seen had i not had the courage to try things that seemed impossible for a shepherd to achieve.


• all people who are happy have God within them. happiness could be found in a grain of sand from the desert. a grain of sand is a moment of creation, and the universe has taken millions of years to create it. people’s hearts seldom say much about those treasures because people no longer want to go in search of them. we speak of them only to children. later, we simply let life proceed, in its own direction, toward its own fate. very few follow the path laid out for them….the path to their Personal Legends, and to happiness. most people see the world as a threatening place, and because they do, the world turns out to be a threatening place.


• what you still need to know is this:
  before a dream is realized, the Soul of the World tests everything that was learned along the way. it does this not because it is evil but so that we can, in addition to realizing our dreams, master the lessons we’ve learned as we’ve moved toward that dream. that’s the point at which most people give up. it’s the point at which, as we say in the desert, one “dies of thirst just when the palm trees appeared on the horizon.” every search begins with beginner’s luck. and every search ends with the victor’s being severely tested.


• when you possess great treasures within you, and try to tell others of them, seldom are you believed.
  


• and my favorite bit of the book: don’t give in to your fears. if you do, you won’t be able to listen to your heart.

i fly thru his books. easy to read and impactful. when i needed to delve into forgiveness, i read his "By The River Piedra I Sat Down and Wept," and have read a few more of his fables. i suggest beginning with "The Alchemist" or find him in the fiction section and let your intuition guide you!