Maybe it is both ;) , we see everything but not meant to understand it fully for now.

You are blessed because you realized your dreams. :)
Thank you for sharing this.
And 400 people a day? :) :)

~katrina

All my life I have walked with God. This is not to say I am a good man, in fact I certainly have failed Him more times than I care to admit. Nevertheless, I have felt His guidance and have never felt separated from him by anything save my own rebellion.

For this reason I have always been suspect of the mysteries of any faith, for they seek to remove Him from me, to educate me into accepting a chasm where there never has been one. Mind the gap. Isn’t this part of the significance of the curtain being rent in two?

This is the first time that I have heard one on the path deny the mysteries, or at least call them into question. Could it be they exist and cease to exist, all at once? Perhaps as we grow the consciousness of them reveals them more and more to be innate, and thus common, and thus not mysteries anymore?

CQ

I even don’t know where am i walking and what am I walking to. I just know that most of my life, I have spent in doingwhat I have not enjoyed doing. I will be 30 soon, the speed with which age passes annoys me and more than that what annoys me is that death with every passing day is drawing a step closer towards me and I haven’t done anything till date which will give me the courage to give it – death- a smiling welcome when it finally knocks at my door ( or should I say knocks me down). I am still leading my life the way I don’t want, there is a rebel within me and it’s really suffocating for Him down there, Oh come out you the rebel within, oh come out soon.

Regards

I always enjoy how you courageously speak of lack of courage, fear, doubt and sense of loss of ability and I am inspired to recapture my dream which is echoed in your words: ‘to become the writer that secretly I’ve always yearned to be but that I’m not courageous enough to become.’

When I turned 50 I felt it had been necessary for me to live my life so as to achieve my dreaming. Now in little over one week, on May 8, I will be 58 and my heart is skipping beats knowing that while I may have acquired some insight I’m still stuck in ‘secret yearning’. I feel pushed to burst out and so nominate this writing as symbolic of piercing holes in my resistance!

When I was young, before needing words, my grandmother’s voice inspired my imagination and through pictures and images I could visit all points of the world, witness events in all times, feel the spectrums of Earth, Planets and the Universe, speak with animals, vegetables and minerals and encounter the best and worst of humanity.

By the time I was thirty I had birthed three souls onto three different vortex of Earth. The love and the joy of rearing my young sons instilled a resillience in my marrow that has sustained me through twenty years of dark with light. In 1986, I lost my place, my face was removed from the world and I felt the path of the homeless yet I never surrendered to total death in life as my bones held the purpose to live, know and heal the unresolved memory of my family.

To-day I feel I need ‘get out of my own way’ so I can write. It is not my Path to tell my personal story but to write from the collective mythic realms where we access memory and wisdom. Until now I have never needed to travel. My feet want to walk along the bones of the Earth and record the encoded collective stories.

Paulo your writing takes me to the depth of self enquiry and without your permission, I have nominated you as my ‘personal mentor in storytelling/writing.’
I hope you embrace this as a deep compliment.

It is such a joy to be directed to this blog. in reading the stories and insights of others I do not feel as isolated.
I now dream to meet others who also walk the Camino on the many roads, realms and dimensions of existence.

Is there a Camino group in Australia or New Zealand or a fan club I could contact?

While you cannot give information, I notice Thea is from Sydney and I met Julius a German man who met you on the Camino in 1986. He said you had taught him to look for omens and when he saw a brightly coloured tractor with the number plate LOVE he felt it was just for him. A couple of days later he met an Australian Julie who was also walking the Path and she is now his wife.

walk gently Christine

Your words above have floated through my mind about my life many a times. My path on the road in the journey we call life has often been absurb and montonous. My life once again has taken a turn and changed direction violently. Through every turn of my road, there has always been a Paulo Coehlo book I can turn to. Not because it has all the answers but it gets me asking the right questions and on a deeper level resonates with me at the very fibres of my being.

Every so often I re-read your books. I have just re-read By The River Piedra, I sat Down and Wept. I picked up The Pilgrimage on Thursday to re-read again. By chance today I checked an old email account that I emailed your office once from years ago. Lo and behold I see the email from your office advising of the anniversary of your journey and your journey down the road once more.

I have chills down my spine with the ‘coincidence’ of it all knowing that there is no such thing. The universe is simply asking me to pay attention.

As I am writing this. I am reminded of The Beautitudes from The Bible and the verse which says ‘Blessed are those who hunger and thirst for righteousness, for they will be filled’

May your soul shed light on your path and your heart be your guide! May you continue to touch so many lives through your work and may this journey revisited bring to you insights which will manifest for the highest good.

I look forward to seeing you if and when you do pass Sydney again.

Yours in Light,
Thea

Dear Paulo
( please read my letter with emotion )
I’m very glad to write this letter , finally at this time .
My name is amiroo , and I’m 30 years old .
I’m married and I don’t have any children yet , fortunately !
I had been read ( and live with it !) first of your masterpiece about 6 years ago .
From that time until now , I’m reading all of your books which been translate
To Persian and living whit one by one of them .
I know that you are very busy but I beg you to read my mail to end , personally .
( I’m sure that you will be reading my mail because of power of godly love
between human !) .
Paulo , now , I’m going to finish your last book that named O’Zahir in Persian .
Usually , I use Gospel to grow my faith and your book to find a way for
Mentioned Faith .
It’s need to say that , O’Zahir is truthfully of your books and o Diario de um Mago is
Fully masterpiece .
Exactly , by reason of above points , I beg you to help me for living true in my way .
Because of this , I would like to be in contact wit you .
So , if you like to contact between us , please reply my mail personally I find my Ester
In my spiritual life with my wife .
I esteem you so much and say god thanks for power of love .
Yours truly
Amir Mirshekari

Since I read my first sentence in your first book I became a fan an addicted girl to your books, your write as if you see me, you put down your thoughts as if you know me. I know you heard this alot but it is very true. like Fatma i am a Muslim and Arab and proud to be so, I was lucky to atend one of your events in Cairo when you visited last summer I wish I can get the chance to sit and talk with you some day.
i wish you a safe trip and waiting for your book to reach Egypt to read it.

Sincerely, Paulo, thank you for helping me to get in touch with myself, through your writing. It makes me happy and hopeful.

Have a good trip and savour the sunshine along the way.

‘I remember that I was a child. It was dark outside and in my room and I was in bed. My teddybear was beside me. A soft light on in the hall outside. I hear my mum and dad talking in the living room downstairs. Soft, comforting voices. But they were out there, not in here. I am scared. A branch from a tree bangs on the window. Someone wants to come in. I feel this in my heart, but I don’t understand why. I don’t open. I’m afraid. Afraid of the darkness filling the room, afraid of whatever wants to come in, afraid of the dark sea under my safe bed. A light appears outside the window. It’s my great grand mother. She smiles and stretches her hands towards me. She is floating in the air, she wants me to come over and open, she loves me; she wants to give me warmth. The sea is dark in front of and under me.

My fear tells me that if I open that window, everything I care about will dissolve. Everybody I love will vanish. That good is not really good. But Olla is just floating in the air. A light streaming from her heart. It hits the window, but some sift through the glass. The light floats through the bedroom, a path of light crossing the dark sea and reaching me. I look at Olla and smile. I’m not afraid anymore. I’m safe. She loves me. I know that she wants me to come over and open the window and let her love embrace me. But I’m safe enough. The path of light is just enough to give me the courage to lie down. While Olla is floating in the light outside, I fall asleep. My great grandmother’s smile is filled with sadness and infinite compassion and love.

My fear tells me that if I open that window, everything I care about will dissolve. Everybody I love will disappear. Everything will rest in darkness. And it will stay dark. That darkness is the truth. The soft path of light between my heart and my great grandmother’s heart is the only thing in the darkness that says “No”; Light is truth. A feeling grows inside a child. Certainty fills her heart. She gets up. She carefully steps down on the surface of the sea, understanding that the dark waters under her feet is in fact carrying her. I run barefeet towards the window, I open it without hesitation; I throw myself in Olla’s arms. I can walk on the ocean; I can float in the air. Olla holds me, she’s smiling, I feel loved. I remember this love. I have experienced it before. My boyfriend loves me like this. Behind all the fear, behind all the misunderstandings, behind what we call life, but which compares more to navigating through rough waters. And I suddenly know. I want these kinds of eyes. I want eyes that see these kinds of things. I want to find safe havens in my life that give me certainty. I want to share. To show that all people’s fears are similar, that we seek the same, love the same, need the same, are ashamed over the same things… and we let shame linger in our soul like heavy rocks never ceasing to grind. A weight with nothing but one purpose: to keep you grounded. To teach us that we can’t fly. We CAN fly.

I want to search inside my soul until it’s empty. I want to carve out my fear and thrust it naked in front of the light. It will reflect in my love and become love. My fear is ashamed of itself. My fear needs my unconditional love. To dissolve, it must be acknowledged. To become light, it needs to be allowed to be darkness. Everything happens for a reason. Every step is a process, all pieces fit. Finding one self and through this to become happy. Not through becoming an image of the perfect human, but by being who you are, being faithful and honest to who you really are. I want to love myself unconditionally. Like was I my own child.