“People are capable, at any time in their lives, of doing what they dream of.”
― Paulo Coelho, Alchemist
I loved reading The Alchemist by Paulo Coelho. It was such an amazing book that it left a mark on my soul. It spoke to me. It gave me hope and permission to trust my soul compass on what direction I should be taking my life. Like any adventurer, sometimes I need to stop, take a reading and make a course correction. Lately, I’ve been distracted by the noise and lost my direction. I stayed busy and learned valuable lessons, but I feel like I might have lingered too long when I should be on my way.
I’ve been working on the fourth installment in my Task Force 125 series, Stealing Liberties, and once I started writing again it all seemed to come back. I started dreaming stories again. It was as if I’d opened a sluice gate and the river began flowing again and it felt right.
“When I had nothing to lose, I had everything. When I stopped being who I am, I found myself.”
― Paulo Coelho, Eleven Minutes
The funny thing is that conventional wisdom is screaming at me, telling me to take a high paying job that will allow me to afford an expensive home. (For those who missed it, the house I’m renting has been foreclosed upon and is up for auction on Saturday.) Even though conventional wisdom is doing all this screaming and stressing me out, there’s a thought that calms me. I was telling a friend today that everything would work out. I’d find a little cottage in the woods somewhere and go Hemingway with a good bottle of Scotch and some hard core writing (minus the shotgun). The idea of a small low-rent, one-room cottage and weeks and weeks of writing brings a wave of peace over me. There was a time when I couldn’t write. I couldn’t create. My heart wasn’t in it. I’d lost my heart for a while. I think I’ve found myself again. I’m ready to write, to create, to allow my imagination to take flight and soar.
Perhaps that’s what I’m meant to do and that’s why it brings me peace.
Or perhaps that’s just what I’m meant to do right now.
Either way, I’m ready to ignore the chaos in my world that I can do nothing about and focus on finding joy where I can – chasing butterflies, giving hugs and writing what I dream.
“Now that she had nothing to lose, she was free.”
― Paulo Coelho, Eleven Minutes
