My so-called Life

I've had an accomplishment which I am so proud of: I've finished reading a novelette in just 1 and ¾ day!!! Haha. I've never done that in my entire life…I'm a slow reader! The novel is entitled Bythe River Piedra I sat down and wept by Paulo Coelho. It’s a story about two young lovers who were reunited after eleven years.I can say it’s a nice story but The Alchemist is still the best! So as always, in every good book that I read, there are always these phrases, sentences, and paragraphs that captured my heart. They either teach or make you realize something or you liked it because you can relate to it.

By the River Piedra I sat down and wept...

* May my tears run just as far, that my love might never know that one day I cried for him. May my tears run just as far, that I might forget the River Piedra, the monastery, the church in the Pyrenees, the mists, and the paths we walked together.

I shall forget the roads, the mountains, and the fields of my dreams- the dreams that will never come true.

I remember my "magic moment"- that instant when a "yes" or a "no" can change one's life forever. It seems so long ago now. It is hard to believe that it was only last week that I had found my love once again, and then lost him.

* "Seek to live. Remembrance is for the old," he said.
Perhaps love makes us old before our time- or young, if youth has passed. But how can I not recall those moments? That is why I write- to try to turn sadness into longing, solitude into remembrance.

* YOU HAVE TO take risks, he said. We will only understand the miracle of life fully when we allow the unexpected to happen.

Every day, god gives us the sun- and also one moment in which we have the ability to change everything that makes us unhappy. Every day, we try to pretend that we haven't perceived that moment, that it doesn't exist- that today is the same as yesterday and will be the same as tomorrow. But if people really pay attention to their everyday lives, they will discover that magic moment...

Joy is sometimes a blessing, but it is often a conquest. Our magic moment helps us to change and sends us off in search of our dreams. Yes, we are going to suffer, we will have difficult times, and we will experience many disappointments- but all of this is transitory; it leaves no permanent mark. And one day we will look back with pride and faith at the journey we have taken.

Pitiful is the person who is afraid of taking risks. Perhaps this person will never be disappointed or disillusioned; perhaps she won't suffer the way people do when they have a dream to follow. But when that person looks back- and at some point everyone looks back- she will hear her heart saying, "What have you done with the miracles that God planted in your days? What have you done with the talents God bestowed on you? You buried yourself in a cave because you were fearful of losing those talents. So this is your heritage: the certainty that you wasted your life."

Pitiful are the people who must realize this. Because when they are finally able to believe in miracles, their life's magic moments will have already passed them by.

* I could have. What does this phrase mean? At any given moment in our lives, there are certain things that could have happened but didn’t. The magic moments go unrecognized, and then suddenly, the hand of destiny changes everything.

* We have to listen to the child we once were, the child who still exists inside us. That child understands magic moments. We can stifle its cries, but we cannot silence its voice...

We have to pay attention to what the child in our heart tells us. We should not be embarrassed by this child. We must allow this child to be scared because the child is alone and is almost never heard.

We must allow the child to take the reins of our lives. The child knows that each day is different from every other day.

We have to allow it to feel loved again. We must please this child- even if this means that we act in ways we are not used to, in ways that may seem foolish to others.

Remember that human wisdom is madness in the eyes of God. But if we listen to the child who lives in our soul, our eyes will grow bright. If we do not lose contact with that child, we will not lose contact with life.

* There's nothing deeper than love. In fairy tales, the princesses kiss the frog, and the frogs become princes. In real life, the princesses kiss the princes, and the princes turn into frogs.

* But love is always new. Regardless of whether we love once, twice, or a dozen times in our life, we always face a brand-new situation. Love can consign us to hell or to paradise, but it always takes us somewhere. We simply have to accept it, because it is what nourishes our existence. If we reject is, we die of hunger, because we lack the courage to stretch out a hand and pluck the fruit from the branches of the tree of life. We have to take love where we find it, even if that means hours, days, weeks or disappointment and sadness.

The moment we begin to seek love, love begins to seek us.

* Waiting is painful. Forgetting is painful. But not knowing which to do is the worst kind of suffering.

And here's the sweetest part of the story:

" It was dark when I came up out of the cavern. I couldn't find you, so I went to Zaragoza. I even went to Soria. I looked everywhere for you. Then I decided to return to the monastery at Piedra to see if there was any sign of you, and I met a woman. She showed me where you were,a nd she said you and been waiting for me."

My eyes filled with tears.

" I am going to sit here with you by the river. If you go home to sleep, I will sleep in front of your house. And if you go away, I will follow you- until you tell me to go away. Then I’ll leave. But I have to love you for the rest of my life."

I could no longer hold back the tears, and he began to weep as well.

About Me

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