Coelho and Me

I met him in 2002, thanks to a fling who's mantra was:

“When you want something, all the universe conspires in helping you to achieve your dream”

Now the fling is gone (a month in 2002 thanks much!) but he, he stayed on with me until now. His name? Paulo Coelho.

My indoctrination came thru his work The Alchemist and since then, I've never been the same. It was a super-to-the-max book read for me that I have re-read the book 5 times now since then. Of course you'd have to know the aftermath of this.

Coelho became my choice of gift to friends, used some of the lines I thought described my feelings on my email signature, asked my mom to read it too which proved to be financially good for me. I didn't have to buy my own Coelho book, I just had to wait for my mom to finish hers.

Let's see, I have read most of his writings available in the Philippines:

• The Alchemist
  
• The Pilgrimage
• The Valkyries
• Veronica Decides to Die
• The Fifth Mountain
• By the River Piedra I Sat Down and Wept
• The Manual of the Warrior of Light
• Eleven Minutes
• The Devil and Ms. Prym

You see, I have not read all of his books but I intend to do so and I believe as of this writing, the universe has begun to move and conspire and help me achieve that goal. Hahahaha!

Now comes another realization.

I am here in Morocco.

Santiago, our shepherd and the hero in the story Alchemist, went to Tangiers, Morocco. Forty five minutes away from Spain by boat. I never thought I'd be spending time in a place where Paulo used as one of his settings.

Shepherds, sand dunes, lamps, night time, oasis, flocks etc. These were some of the words you can find in the story and all of these are here in Morocco.

I'll have a free week starting tonight and I've got a big-petty-stupid problem: I want to go and see the Sahara. A place where the oasis can be found, sand dunes abound and warriors reside. I was told that I'd have to travel for 8 hours to reach the place from Meknes.

I wish by tomorrow I will know if my "Little U.N." will go with me to Sahara and if we do, I'd be thinking about Coelho's thoughts about the sands:

"So his heart was quiet for an entire afternoon. That night, the boy slept deeply, and, when he awoke, his heart began to tell him things that came from the Soul of the World. It said that all people who are happy have God within them. And that happiness could be found in a grain of sand from the desert, as the alchemist had said. Because a grain of sand is a moment of creation, and the universe has taken millions of years to create it. "Everyone on earth has a treasure that awaits him," his heart said. "We, 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. But, unfortunately, very few follow the path laid out for them---the path to their destinies, and to happiness. Most people see the world as a threatening place, and, because they do, the world turns out indeed, to be threatening place."

Maybe I'd be bringing back a bottle of sand, a sack or a pocket of it. Whatever, I just wish to have on my hands a proof of God's moment of creation.

Oh! can't wait to see the Sahara, can't wait to get my eyes on a new Paulo Coelho book.

Well, for now I've got to link these Free Paulo Coelho Books Online.