Inspired Inscribes - 28

In 2007 I had laid my hands on The Fifth Mountain by Paulo Coelho in a second hand book shop. It was a in a very tattered and yet something in it made me want to pick it up. The foreword that I read seemed to speak to me. And I knew I had to read that one.

With that one book I fell in love with this man - the man who has redefined love, life, relationships and most importantly me through his books. One of the biggest inspirations for me is Paulo Coelho. Don’t get me wrong, it is not the name and fame that he has got. It’s something else!

The picture that I have shared here reflects a sense of calm and contentment. I want to be like this when I am as old as him. I want to smile like this reflecting calmness of having been there, done that and yet be happy about it all. I want to retain that twinkle in my eyes which talk about the bygone times not with tears but with a chuckle. I want to look back at my life and reminisce about it with a pride in my voice and a smile on my lips. I want to share my mistakes and the lessons I learnt without worrying how will I be tagged. I want to have lived, loved and laughed – and let all that reflect on my face just like this!

Having read about his life till now I sometimes feel the only thing that perhaps sets him apart from all of us is his ability to follow his dreams and listen to his heart like none other. And that is what makes the whole difference. I aspire to be fearless when it comes to following my dreams and listening to my heart. I don’t know what stops me, or maybe I know but somewhere deep down the shackles are so tight that I am unable to break them. And it is him who has constantly inspired me to do that and continues to do that. 

 I have loved all his works and re-read them many times by now but Aleph undoubtedly remains my all time favourite for many reasons. Many times when I feel lost I find answers through his writings and his quotes. Sometimes when I am reading his works my mind suddenly asks how he exactly knows what I need to hear now, that’s how deep a connection I feel with each of his works. Sharing some of my favourite ones here:

“Everything tells me that I am about to make a wrong decision, but making mistakes is just part of life. What does the world want of me? Does it want me to take no risks, to go back to where I came from because I didn't have the courage to say "yes" to life?”

“At every moment of our lives, we all have one foot in a fairy tale and the other in the abyss.”

“Never be ashamed,’ he said. ‘Accept what life offers you and try to drink from every cup. All wines should be tasted; some should only be sipped, but with others, drink the whole bottle.’
‘How will I know which is which?’
 ‘By the taste. You can only know a good wine if you have first tasted a bad one.”

“In love, no one can harm anyone else; we are each responsible for our own feelings and cannot blame someone else for what we feel.”

Everyone believes the world's greatest lie..." says the mysterious old man.
"What is the world's greatest lie?" the little boy asks.
The old man replies, "It's this: that at a certain point in our lives, we lose control of what's happening to us, and our lives become controlled by fate. That's the world's greatest lie.”

“With love, there are no rules. The heart decides and what it decides is all that really matters.”

“Whenever someone dies, a part of the universe dies too. Everything a person felt, experience and saw dies with them, like tears in the rain.”

“After weeks on the road, listening to a language you don’t understand, using a currency whose value you don’t comprehend, walking down streets you’ve never walked down before, you discover that your old “I,” along with everything you ever learned, is absolutely no use at all in the face of those new challenges, and you begin to realize that buried deep in your unconscious mind there is someone much more interesting and adventurous and more open to the world and to new experiences.”