The Valkyries

This is soon becoming a traveling tradition for me; I pick a new book either before I leave or when I get to my destination by Paulo Coelho. My selection for my next trip is The Valkyries, let me tell you that it wasn’t easy to select just one book because I also wanted to read The Witch of Portobello. But I guess the theme of this one is what I’m looking for right now. Here is the review from Amazon.com:

From Booklist
There is enough interest in angels to ensure this peculiar little book a significant audience. It traces a spiritual journey of sorts, stereotypically cast as a journey into the desert, that embodies a New Age conception of liberation as liberation from the past in confrontation with oneself. The “ritual that demolishes rituals,” which is the climax of the book, is all done with mirrors. As Simone de Beauvoir would note, the “mirrors” are women–and that calls into question both the “newness” of the story and the “age” it heralds. But it is a strange tale many will find compelling. Steve Schroeder –

Excerpt from the backcover:
A powerful exploration of one man’s battle with self-doubt and fear.
“this true-life odyssey is at once a modern-day adventure story and a poignant message about letting go of the past and believing in the future.”

If you have read this book please share with me your thoughts on it, but don’t tell me the ending though.

Paulo, you are traveling with me one more time. I hope you don’t mind.

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Clary Lopez, author of Simplicity, Richness of Life

20th Anniversary of The Alchemist

Congratulations Paulo on this important anniversary. The Alchemist continues to be the book everyone should read. I can’t thank you enough for having written this book.

Here is a repost I did on the book some time ago.

Paulo Coelho Blog

The Alchemist by Paulo Coelho

Click the picture to buy the book

This is one of my all time favorite books; I’ve read it three times and bought copies to give away to my family and friends. I bought the Spanish version while I was visiting my parents in Puerto Rico. It truly is a great book to get you to think about what your dreams really mean in your life and how far they can take you on your earthly journey. It also helps you to listen to your heart and follow your dreams. I was surprised at the end of this fable story. Hope you take the time to read it.

You can read The Alchemist for free here, while you wait for your print copy.

In here Paulo answer questions from his readers about the book.

Die Living, Not Dead

“And death is possibly the most important thing. We are all walking towards death, but we never know when death will touch us and it is our duty, therefore, to look around us, to be grateful for each minute. But we should also be grateful to death, because it makes us think about the importance of each decision we take, or fail to take; it makes us stop doing anything that keeps us stuck in the category of the “living dead” and, instead, urges us to risk everything, to bet everything on those things we always dreamed of doing, because, whether we like it or not, the angel of death is waiting for us.”– Paulo Coelho

What is life supposed to be? Mere existence or a sum of experiences fully lived? I wonder as we somehow get from living each and every moment to navigating on autopilot through life. When did all of this happen and why? Life is not static, it evolves and changes and sometimes those changes are not welcomed or accepted. Familiarity and comfort is regarded with stability but there comes a time when we may not feel that way anymore. I guess our outlook changes the moment we face death. Dying is such a final state even to those of us who believe in resurrection that it makes us dig deep within ourself. In order to rise to eternal life we must experience death, the same goes when we are to experience a necessary transformation in our life, something has to die inside of us in order to be re-born. We know a transformation is necessary because there is a nagging sense of pain and sorrow within we can’t shake off from our soul. The more we resist it the more it hurts.

These periods of our life have been called many things but my favorite so far is Dark Nights of the Soul, Thomas Moore wrote a book with that title and as I read it I identify to all that I’m feeling at this moment. I don’t agree with everything he writes but the core of the matter is there and I can relate. I was studying St. John of the Cross writings months before I came to this stage in my life and in a way I see it as the prelude to a great transformation of mind and spirit in order to connect fully to what God had in mind for my life.

This is a short passage from Dark Nights of the Soul:

Your dark night is preparing you to be yourself. It is reenacting your birth as a person. It is offering you an alternative to absorption in your manipulative culture.

Your dark night is forcing you to consider alternatives. It is taking you out of the active life of submission to alien goals and purposes. It is offering you your own approach to life. You can sit with it and consider who you are and who you want to be. you can be fortified by it to stand strong in your very existence. You can be born again, not into and ideology that needs your surrender, but into yourself, your uniqueness, your God-given reality, the life destined for you.

The question now is if we are going to let our life to evolve and be transformed or if we are going to continue to hide behind our fears and begin to die inside? It takes courage to move on to an unknown path but it is ultimately a matter of life or death of our own spirit.

Brida

I was reading Paulo Coelho’s Blog and found out about his new book, Brida. The theme was interesting and in tune to what many women go through at different stages in their life. It has to do with finding out who she (Brida) is among other things, something I am questioning in my own life and I’m sure many other women are as well.

Here is the sypnosis from Amazon:

The spellbinding new novel from one of the world’s best-loved authors, Paulo Coelho, recounting the story of Brida, and her pursuit of wisdom. This is the story of Brida, a young Irish girl, and her quest for knowledge. She has long been interested in various aspects of magic, but is searching for something more. Her search leads her to people of great wisdom, who begin to teach her about the world. Her teachers sense that Brida has a gift, but cannot tell what that is. Meanwhile, Brida pursues her course ever deeper into the mysteries of life, seeking to answer questions about who she is. She meets a wise man who dwells in a forest, and teaches her about overcoming her fears and trusting in the goodness of the world, and a woman who teaches her how to dance to the music of the world, and how to pray to the moon. She seeks her destiny, as she struggles to find a balance between her relationships and her desire to become a witch. This enthralling novel incorporates themes fans of Paulo will love. It is a tale of love, passion, mystery and spirituality.

I went ahead and pre-order the Spanish version due in April, I can’t wait. I just finished reading The Zahir and I really enjoyed it. It is about love and obsession. Right now I’m reading Veronika Decides to Die. Paulo always write about what is so common to all of us as human beings, there is a new important universal theme in each one of his books. He says he writes to understand himself but in the process he reveals human nature to the core and the great need to keep it linked to the spiritual. I always find nuggets of wisdom sprinkled in all of his books and some of them are deeper than others.

If you get a chance go ahead and check his books, I am sure you won’t be disappointed.

Thank you Paulo for writing the way you do.

Love and Personal Legend

(Paulo Coelho Blog)

Life, love, personal legend should be contained within each and everyone of us. The way we live and love should ultimately help us fulfill our personal legend in our lifetime, it is the only way to attain peace within. Whenever we depart or renounce our personal legend our existence becomes unbearable, we might manage to distract ourselves with all kinds of work, people and situations but eventually it calls our attention.

Love should never prevent us from fulfilling our personal legend, only we decide to let that happen, if we dare do so we give way to a life accompanied by pain and discontent. According to my understanding of personal legend it gives us the necessary balance within in order to accomplish our mission in life, by ignoring or renouncing it we alter an integral part of our well-being. Many health problems are caused by this unbalanced or persistance to continue on a path that will never help us fulfill our personal legend.

Love should not be something conditional to a long list of requirements and expectations. It’s not something you initiate but that springs forth from the heart voluntarily, is not part of a plan or goal in anyone’s life, it just is. Whenever we think of love as something that should be part of our life instead of something that should manifest itself in our life we run the risk to make big mistakes. Love is like water, you see it running in the rivers and moving in the oceans nourishing life and beauty but the moment you try to contain it and get control of it you need to artificially purify it, treat it and maintain it in order to enjoy it. The moment you stop doing those things the water get stagnant and become as good as poison. Love should be something you are opened to in your life but that you never chase, try to control or create on your own.

Think twice when you find yourself deciding between love and your personal legend, if you are in that situation chances are you are deciding something you should not at all.

Wisdom and Instinct

I do my daily share of blog reading first thing in the morning as I look for inspiration to begin my writing day. I’m usually fed by the minds of those I admire the most. One of my regular stops is on Paulo Coelho’s blog. I enjoy the writings and interviews he shares it in his various sites. Listening to the way he thinks in general is an awesome experience. It urges me to dig in deeper and to reflect on my day to day issues.

Today I heard him speak about Instinct and how that relates to wisdom. You might want to hear it for yourself. I commented on his blog but I wanted to expand a little bit more here.

Being wise is something that a lot of people might want to be at some point in their life, but it’s hard to know for sure if we have arrived. We are on a constant evolution mentally and spiritually and our level of understanding continues to change if we allow ourselves to continue with the learning process. Instinct to me is an internal propeller that moves us towards what we are supposed to do or be. We have the power to follow or reject it. Some people have paid a very high price for ignoring their instinct, to a certain extent it can also be a warning mechanism. That’s why I feel so strongly about the importance of being in tune with your heart, mind and soul. Ignoring part of what’s integral in our nature creates disbalances which are hard to live with on the long run.

Share with me what you think about this and what Paulo Coelho had to say on his interview. It’s always good to read what others think about the same topic.

Did You Love Enough

I listened to this message at least ten times and continue to analyze what it means to me personally. Love has been theme of interest to me for a very long time, I’m still learning how to love.

Watch Paulo Coelho’s take on love and then read my take on the same subject.

Clary’s take:

I find a lot of wisdom in everything Paulo Coelho has to say about life in general. He expresses so well what matters to all of us. I listened to the whole series of this presentation on YouTube and got a lot from it. On this part he speaks about love. I know that they are a lot of you struggling with this issue and questioning what’s all about, should we hope to find it or look for it, should we give it up after a bad experience or forever dream about it without letting it rule our life.

Love is a powerful feeling, it builds up and completely destroys us. It’s sublime and is hell. It’s giving and taking. It’s free and sacrificed. It’s all hopeful and forgiving. All of these and much more.

Paulo speaks about others being happy with our happiness ( and I would add: even if it doesn’t include them) that’s love. He also speaks about us not sacrificing our love for those of others. I’ve been taught that love is sacrifice, so how do we correlate both and still experience love and happiness in our life? That’s the difficult question. How far do you go in your sacrifice?

I don’t have all the answers yet, I’m navigating my life and doing the best I can to live my life in an authentic way. Whatever I’ve learned so far I love to share it with others and I’m always listening to those who are older and wiser than I am. Love is a mystery to me and I guess it is for all of us who truly want to experience what it is and how to better express it. There are many levels according to our state in life and there are different kinds of love as well. I guess we can study, experience, meditate, analyze all we want and we will never know the fullness of it but I’m sure we are entitled to have some of it if we remain opened and receptive to it.

Now, what is your take?

Paulo Coelho, my favorite author

Paulo Coelho Blog

The Alchemist by Paulo Coelho

Click the picture to buy the book

This is one of my all time favorite books; I’ve read it three times and bought copies to give away to my family and friends. I bought the Spanish version while I was visiting my parents in Puerto Rico. It truly is a great book to get you to think about what your dreams really mean in your life and how far they can take you on your earthly journey. It also helps you to listen to your heart and follow your dreams. I was surprised at the end of this fable story. Hope you take the time to read it.