Tell you heart that the fear of suffering is is worse than the suffering itself and that no heart has ever suffered when it goes in search for its dreams, because every second of the search is a second's encounter with God and with eternity"--Paulo Coehlo's "The Alchemist".
*Image is credited to Rain Tajon
What are you looking for?
What have you've been dreaming?
We all have that dream. A dream about what we wanted to be, about of something we had been wanting. That we strive hard to reach that dream, make it into reality. We chase, we took paths that we never planned to take, to finally make that dream come true.
And the same thing happened to Santiago, in Paulo Coehlo's "The Alchemist", a book that I always kept and read from time to time. But here is a short background about me and the book.
A little story about finding the book.
Way back in 2010, I paid a visit to my sister in Discovery Bay in Hong Kong, and while we were walking around near the beach, we saw a garage sale on an expat's front yard. Since we are a fan of things on sale, we scan what we can buy and how much they were being priced.
Something caught my eye, an old book, written by someone I haven't known yet and for $HK5.00, I grabbed it and paid that said amount.
The original price was more than a hundred, with the cover almost hanging and the pages is turning yellow, I have thought that the book must be a good one. And I can say, that it is one of the book I keep and never wanted to have anyone borrow it since the cover is barely hanging on the tape.
With the book originally written in Portuguese (O Alquimista), first published in 1988 and was translated and published in English in the year 1993, it had became an international bestseller with 70 languages for the translation by the year 2016.
And now, I just bought the 25th anniversary edition, just in time for my personal struggle, but before that let me tell you something about this famous book.
*Image is credited to Rain Tajon
What is the book all about?
*Image is credited to Rain Tajon
The book was written by Paulo Coehlo, a Brazillian lyricist and novelist, "The Alchemist" is a magical story of Santiago, an Andalusian shepherd boy who travels in his search for worldly treasure that has been recurring on his dreams. He then asked a Romani fortune teller about its meaning.
Making his dream come true.
Santiago had attended the seminary until he was sixteen and his parents wanted him to become a priest.That they worked hard to save for his studies, and on the seminary, he had studied Latin, Spanish and Theology. But Santiago has another plan for himself, wanted to do something that is not in line with his parents dream for him, HE WANTED TO TRAVEL.
Traveling for Santiago will make him see castles, climb the mountains to see those castles, wanted to meet those people living in the castles. He wanted to see their lands and how do they live. With his plan on traveling, and not enough money, his father's thought of someone like them being a traveler is to become a shepherd, and Santiago he will become one. His father maybe hesitant about the idea, he gave Santiago three ancient Spanish gold coins to start and also as his inheritance.
It is the possibility of having a dream come true that make life;s interesting"--Paulo Coehlo's "The Alchemist"
My own search for my dream, my destiny.
*Image is credited to Rain Tajon
To reliaze one's destiny is a person's only obligation"--Paulo Coehlo's "The Alchemist"
Santiago is like a me. I have my own dream, I am in search for my destiny, for my place in the sun. And getting there is hard, harder than I thought.
Just like his parents, my parents wanted be to become someone but neither of what have I become. I must say, that every day that I wake up, I still doubt if it is this I really what I wanted and that is to write.
For the past blogs that has been reviewed, I always get a low score and I cannot help myself not to doubt my capability, even what I meant for. But frustrations are coming in for either I failed to meet the standards or lacking into some aspect. Somehow I felt sad and nearly broken hearted. Maybe I should strive for more, try harder and keep on trying. Looking for another site is not an option for I am barely here due to my schedule.
Next thing I know, I am rereading "The Alchemist" and helped me to stand up and keep on writing and take down notes for those reviews
“Tell your heart that the fear of suffering is worse than the suffering itself. And that 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.” ― Paulo Coelho
Reading the book again, I will share my favorite lines that I know it can help others as well, who are struggling in search for their dreams and destiny.
Quotes from "The Alchemist" that I live by.
1. “When we strive to become better than we are, everything around us becomes better, too.”
2. “The secret of life, though, is to fall seven times and to get up eight times.”
3. “There is only one way to learn. It's through action. Everything you need to know you have learned through your journey.”
4. “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.”
5. “The secret of happiness is to see all the marvels of the world, and never to forget the drops of oil on the spoon.”
Definitely, there are so many things that make me ponder and have some thoughts with regards to my struggle. A boost, a push to keep on working on it.
*Image is credited to Rain Tajon
Here is the video of the plot of "The Alchemist"
Video is credited to youtube via coursehero
