Alchemy

“Don't think about what you've left behind" The alchemist said to the boy as they began to ride across the sands of the desert. "If what one finds is made of pure matter, it will never spoil. And one can always come back. If what you had found was only a moment of light, like the explosion of a star, you would find nothing on your return.”
― Paulo Coelho, The Alchemist

The last day of 2020

In Ontario it is day 293 of our personal lives being directly impacted by the pandemic.  But was our former world made of pure matter or was it a moment of light?

“and the world we live in will be either better or worse, depending on whether we become better or worse. And that's where the power of love comes in. Because when we love, we always strive to become better than we are.”
― Paulo Coelho, The Alchemist

Why, when there are sunrises and moon rises and birds singing and trees dancing, puppies and babies and people being kind amid all the tragedy and suffering, injustice and ignorance, consumption and abuse do the latter seem to constrict us like the tentacles of an octopus? We can create the world we live in by choosing the lens we look through.

“But he was able to understand one thing: making a decision was only the beginning of things. When someone makes a decision, he is really diving into a strong current that will carry him to places he had never dreamed of when he first made the decision.”

― Paulo Coelho, The Alchemist

I wish for all of us for 2021 to empower our alchemy and step into our dreams!!

That's what alchemists do. They show that, when we strive to become better than we are, everything around us becomes better, too.”
― Paulo Coelho, The Alchemist

My rereading list (very partial): 

The Alchemist by Paulo Coelho, Man's Search for Meaning by Viktor Frankl, and,  Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance by Robert M Persig (which is always a good read, but made this years list because of the following quote) 

“There was a language in the world that everyone understood, a language the boy had used throughout the time that he was trying to improve things at the shop. It was the language of enthusiasm, of things accomplished with love and purpose, and as part of a search for something believed in and desired.”

― Paulo Coelho, The Alchemist

Cheers

Jeanne