Paulo Coelho "Like the Flowing River"
It is a collection of individual stories, each based on some observation, insight or reflection. Reading it, I noticed that the stories included in the book also appear as fragments incorporated into Paulo Coelho's novels, including the recently published "Aleph".
Today I solemnly arranged a separate shelf in the bookcase for Coelho's books. The eleventh was joined by "Like the Flowing River", published in Latvian in 2008.
"Like the Flowing River"
It is a collection of individual stories, each based on some observation, insight or reflection. Reading it, I noticed that the stories included in the book also appear as fragments incorporated into Paulo Coelho's novels, including the recently published "Aleph" (2011). Although in essence "Like the Flowing River" is a compilation of Coelho's journalism from various press publications between 1998 and 2004.
Since the book has no unified storyline, but rather the thematic territory familiar to fans of Coelho's work - love, fate, time, the purpose of human life, death, choice, will, and the like - below are just a few quotations to whet the appetite for reading.
Paulo Coelho's Insights
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What we often call "experience" is merely the sum of our defeats.
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Love transforms, love heals. But sometimes love can become a deadly trap that destroys the person who had resolved to give themselves entirely to another. .. Yet I have understood that these feelings are present everywhere and, in particular, in small things. They manifest in ordinary and simple gestures, which is why, whenever beginning or concluding something, love must be kept in mind.
Picking up the telephone and saying long-postponed yet dear words. Opening the door and inviting in someone who needs our help. Starting a new job. Leaving a job. Making a decision we have been putting off. Asking forgiveness for something that keeps us awake at night. Demanding that our rights be respected. Opening a bill from a flower shop - which is far more important than a jewellery shop. Turning the music up when the beloved person is far away, and turning it down when they are nearby. Knowing when to say "yes" and when "no", because the power of love accompanies a person at every step. Discovering a sport that two people can practise together. Following no one's advice - not even the advice in this essay - for love is creative.
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Every act performed in anger is doomed to failure. (engraving on the wing of the golden statue of Genghis Khan's faithful falcon)
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.. far worse than hunger or thirst, far worse than the loss of a job or the torments of love, far worse than the despair of defeat - far worse than all of this is to understand that no one, absolutely no one in this world has any need of you.
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