Have you read any good books recently? My favorite genres are fantasy and science fiction and I hardly ever read books from other genres. For a wedding gift, one of our dear friends (and Dan’s cousin), Amelia, gave us The Alchemist by Paulo Coelho. I just finished reading it and it was wonderful and so beautifully written. The story is about following your heart and going after your dreams and understanding why you must fulfill desires within your own life to truly know what it is to live and love. I could relate to so much of what the main character, Santiago, went though on his journey to discover his own Personal Legend. There were many, many beautiful passages throughout the book; here are a couple of my favorites (the last one has stuck with me).
“There is only one thing that makes a dream impossible to achieve: the fear of failure.” Pg. 141
The alchemist repeats a proverb that he believes in and it says, “‘Everything that happens once can never happen again. But everything that happens twice will surely happen a third time.'” Pg. 156
“I’ve learned things from sheep, and I’ve learned things from crystal, he thought. I can learn something from the desert, too. It seems old and wise.” Pg. 73
“Each day, in itself, brings with it an eternity.” Pg. 103.
“…before a dream is realized, the Soul of the World tests everything that was learned along 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 language of the desert, one ‘dies of thirst just when the palm trees have appeared on the horizon.'” Pg. 132.
When asked why you should follow your heart, the alchemist told the boy: “Because you will never again be able to keep it quiet. Even if you pretend not to have heard what it tells you, it will always be there inside you, repeating to you what you’re thinking about life and the world.” Pg. 129.
So, have you read The Alchemist? What did you think?