and reduce it to zero because it is wise not to waste time on it. But it doesn’t do the same when it runs across a depression because firstly, it gains in, as you rightly said, patience by doing so and secondly it doesn’t take so much time as it takes to grind a stone off.[/quote]

Dear Kiran,
you forgot to mention thirdly: water seems to take pleasure in gathering itself to move on even more powerful…
Karin

We are tired because:

We have to be so perfect in our own eyes
We have to be so clever
We have to be competent
We have to be loved
We have to be happy
We have to be joyful
We have to give so much
We have to be so wise

The truth is:

I am happy just to be a normal human beeing
I am happy just to be myselv
I am happy with others
I am happy to be scared
I am happy to be vulnerable
I am happy to make mistakes
I am happy to love my family and friends
I am happy with all people in the world
I am happy to do nothing
I am happy not to be perfect
I am happy to do misstakes
I am happy to forgive
I am happy to be good enough
I am happy not to cope with everything

I am happy to be free

Chantal;
Like Paolo said: sometimes the river slows down. Take comfort in the fact that this fase also will end. Enjoy the time that has been given to you en pay attention to small things. Again you will discover the beauty of life, but in a different way.

good luck

Sun shines through raindrops.

The entry, On the banks of Lake Baikal 11, has called me to pause, reflect and to make a decision. As yet I do not understand what that is or will be?

While writing on this site I have realised two templates of depression run through me life.

One is my personal pattern. The void where I am drawn down and held until new patterns settle into my bones the Light renews my Spirit and I am released back to unfold and flow again with the rhythms of my life’s learnings.

The other seeps un-noticed into my marrow and works through my body until I realise I reflect the patterns of pain, of the stagnant, polluted water sytems of Earth.

The magnitude is overwhelming and equally overwhelming is my inability to change humanity’s abuse of Earth, therefore of ourselves. I lament that I do not have the public face or voice that calls others to pay attention or the funds to contribute to organisations who promote ecological education. I also lament that ‘we’ have become so separate from our natural integrity that we need public faces and funds to call us back to living within an eco-system that reflects the genius of God in whatever form that takes in our lives.

I am left with three tools. One is an awareness of appreciation for the water that flows through me and my life. Two is prayer and three is to step back onto the Path of my childhood when I believed my Grandmother’s stories of hope and the power of magic meant I could change things.

Perhaps the the decision I sense calling me is to remember my true Path?

My life reflects I am one of the many who fail to accept the dictate of society’s values are the only template for success in life. While I crave for recognition and a sense of place within a system I cannot subscribe to patterns where monetary wealth results in Spiritual poverty.

Ah Paulo, I am coming to the end of my Camino DownUnder and I arrive with questions not the Sword I had hoped for.

Originally I expressed the dream of co-creating low cost eco-housing for the homeless…now I realise that is the tip of the iceberg!

I want to rebirth and deliver to humanity a re-vision of our role of custodeanship of Earth. I dream to live independently yet within an artistic community focused on the same Dream while from different expressions.

During these weeks of following your writings there have been many moments of insights and revealation and right now, I am remembering how at the beginning I felt a deep response to your own holding ‘a secret desire to be a writer’ and of the fear and shyness around that.

Well what is that saying? I back to the beginnning… again yet again!
Now I find my boots, coat and umbrella and walk in the rain.
I call the memory of my Grandmother to walk with me as we ponder in wonder that it is possible that the rain that falls on us to-day is the same rain that fell on the Earth at the exact place where God chose to form Adam…and it is possible that the rain that falls on Sydney Town is the same elixir that bubbles from the veins of Earth, up through Lake Baikal and delivers the memory of the Ancient Ones, the Ancestors who knew they were Custodeans of a Life much larger than themselves?

While I am walking, I will consider buying a gelato that may just happen to hold the same water that composed the orange Cleopatra offered Mark Anthony when he rode in from the desert?

walk gently
Christine

thank you for the inspiring thoughts and words you have shared on your pilgrimage, I have found them to be very timely for me as someone who recently fell off the path and feels that she may now have gotten back on it.

munto obrigada e O Deus derrama seus amor e grace em cima de você agora e sempre

Buon Cammino
PS watched the opening ceremony of the world cup. Was hoping to see you among the fans…

Dear friends on this Journey,

The other day i went for a long walk on the plains where i grew up. The sky over my head there has always seemed so willing to communicate. The fileds are blooming and i found a tree that had hundreds of white, shimmering butterflies.
I sat on a rock next to this tree. It is located on a little hill where there once was a little cottage. Today all that remains are an apple tree and the rocks that once was the foundation of the cottage. I remember what my mother have told me what her her father remembered of this place.

About hundred-thirty years ago there was a family living here. There was seven children and my grandfather remembered the youngest son walking to school. They were very poor and the boy walked many, many kilometers without shoes. The same old dirt road i have walked today – barefeet though by own choice.

I sit on a rock that once was the foundation and watch the butterflies while i think of the children playing all around me. And i can hear them. And yet they are so far away. Their time came and went and now what remains is a hundred butterflies and a appletree.

And i think that soon time will pass and what will remain of me? And if i could have an apple tree and a hundred butterflies surrounding my memory in a hundred-thirty years from now i will never fear again.

Dear friends, i feel its more important then ever that we work on meeting, seeing each other. Im so glad to se im not alone in walking here with soles bare touching the dirt, with a heart pumping forward and with eyes beginning to see. I sometimes dont think we have much time left of THIS time. Ofcourse our spirits will always connect and find their ways home. Just like we have here. I dont want this to end, i think its just at the beginning. We met and together we grow.
Thanks,

Love and Light always, Louise in Sweden

You seem to have lived many lives whilst being incarnated in one body. I too know what it is like to ride a wave, only to come crashing back down.

Do you write in a journal? I can’t recommend these enough. You will write in them one month and then so many months down the line you will look back and wonder. Also write your dreams down. As many as you can remember, because they are messages.

My Guides come to me in my dreams and have taught me so much. Although it did take a Shaman to explain what was happening.

You need quiet time sweetheart, “you need to pause between the breaths you take” (Oriah Mountain Dreamer). Spiritual growth books are great. But in reading them, in wishing we had that life, guess what? We are missing out of our own.

Many of us are searching. What for? We have no idea until we find it. Be still and listen and you will hear the whispers.

Good Luck!

Lisa
xx

It seems like this pilgrimage with all its magical turns, doors into unknown opening every day and leading to the new lands within of me filled me with immense happiness.
Really, no matter how unstraight the road of life might be, and how many challenges we are faced on it… sometimes being totally broken or lost, or suddenly feeling the enlightments and inspiration… all the words posted in this blog made me feel how just incredible and great life is !!!

We all search, but each moment we are just who we are – and THIS is our destination – each present moment in which we breath in and breath out and have endless opportunities to create or change everything each second.
To be like magicians each moment of your life… this journey somehow made me feel so and for the recent times i was just like in the state of soaring, like a butterfly that lived in a cocoon and now opened her wings and enjoying the flight.
The secret is that we may do this more than once in our lifes, and this is the greatest part of the journey. To live and to transformate. And before we transformate in reality, we are first transformated within, and this is what this blog gave me.

I wish to thank EVERYONE who put the parts of the hearts in this sphere of light, who by opening their hearts showed HOW beautiful is our universe and what a magic it is to be alive and just experience what we all do.
To be in a constant movement, to walk the path…. and to feel everything – sorrows and joys as they both let us reveal our genuine essence.

I am happy, i am happy to be in this journey with all of you ! And though in this space of the blog it is probably going to find its destination very soon, we all know that we contuine it each and every day and we are all ONE. ONE walking in love and free soaring of our spirits :)
Experiencing life with our hearts. What might be more precious and joyful :)

I am sending You all, dearest friends, my love and may God bless You all to find and explore our personal paths as what we are here for, i believe. Everyone will find his treasures, as whenever we find ourselves in the end of the road, this is exactly where we were meant to come.

I thank each of You for the sparkles of Your souls and wisdom :)

And of course, dear Magician… The light of Your divine wisdom shines through my heart and its radiance not only inspires me to always reach new heights, create art, realize myself but also be happy on this way.

Because i know by now, due to my experience (which is still however little as i am 23) that the precious gift of life is given for us not for sufferings but for joy , this is the chance for each of us to make this earth more and more beautiful by finding our path and living it. Yes, we do suffer or feel deperessed from time to time… but only for discovering even more magical joys and craziness of life afterwards.

No matter how much we may fall down while climbing the mountain, i am now absolutely convinced and trust that we will raise as God is amazingly generous in blessing the heart with signs and magical unpredictable treasures.
And when you discover this, this movement ( and indeed the feeling of being a river which sees only more and more beautiful banks on its way)
you are not scary anymore of anything. We may not loose anything, since the river is free, but what we experience just flowing and letting life open the new horizons is amazing. So, let’s just enjoy it :)

“The eternity is in love with creations of time ” :) William Blake
and that’s what we are and everything we do in our own ways….

I feel that i may write endless, as my heart is shining with love to all of You, my friends, and You, dearest Magician, but again being short, i just wish to THANK YOU for this most precious gift, honour and pleasure – to experience this pilgrimage together, to be able to share and to discover sooo much on its way !
It did changed my life by filling with strength, light, inspiration, smiles and knowing that life is a pure magic when there are so many great people around :)

I send You ALL my love, and dear Paulo – there are no words to thank You for this blog which united us all in love. For the blog that IS life since it reflects so much of our inner rushes and impressions.
You are the SUN passing wisdom that changes our lifes, and this pilgrimage is a dance of life :)

I love You ALL.

with my heart opened and smiling :)
Love,
Dasha B.
thank You so much for this magical spiritual journey !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

I’m happy to hear your journey is going well. Your books and website are a source of joy and inspiration to me. I just took my own vacation and I read the Alchemist while traveling around Mexico.

My brother Steven whom died 4 months ago gave me the book. I read Veronika Decides to Die also because he told me about it. I feel that the messages that I am reminded of through your writing is a priceless gift he has left me.

I love the comparisons of LIFE to WATER. May the last day of your journey bring you many blessings.

Namaste,

Melita

and of course new friends gathered here… i have just finished the zahir, i have taken my time with it, wanting to read, yet not wanting to reach the end… as with all your books… and now i have come to the end of it, and now in a few days will be your last blog, we will all feel lost and bereft… thank you thank you, for this wonderful journey you have allowed us to follow you on, making us feel part of your every step and guide us through so many other parts of our lives and thoughts.

my journal, blog, i share with friends and family and friends not yet met, i will continue writing and hope to enlighten people with the things i see and places i go, so many people are limited to one place on this planet, and to read of others journeys opens our minds and souls… you have opened mine.

marian

“Sometimes the most important thing in a whole day is the rest we take between two deep breaths, or the turning inwards in prayer for five short minutes.” Etty Hillesum

read the entry, absolutely fantastic!!!! its a great blessing to be inspired especially by nature. the greatest teacher of all time is nature herself!!!! her patience and endurance is that makes us go on with our lives!
this life is a blessing but some “depressions” cause us to think otherwise !that is when people like u makes us realize that in that depression lies a potential of a greater force!

thank u million!!!

love and prayers
nitoo

You say then “But still something inside me makes me so tired i feel like the big challenge is being at this still-point.” I think you’re wrong in saying it’s not a form of depression. Depression is not only despondence, it is that subtle, insidious almost unnoticeable feeling that creeps into your mind and heart and tells you that everything is futile.

However, that still point may be something else. Thomas Merton once wrote ““At the center of our being is a point of nothingness which is untouched by sin and by illusion, a point of pure truth, a point or spark which belongs entirely to God, which is never at our disposal, from which God disposes of our lives, which is inaccessible to the fantasies of our own mind or the brutalities of our own will.

This little point of nothingness and of absolute poverty is the pure glory of God in us. It is so to speak his name written in us, as our poverty, as our indigence, as our dependence, as our sonship.

It is like a pure diamond, blazing with the invisible light of heaven. It is in everybody, and if we could see it we would see these billions of points of light coming together in the face and blaze of a sun that would make all the darkness and cruelty of life vanish completely…”

That is the stuff your dreams are made of Chantal. Take time to explore it. And by the way, I believe that right now, we are the points of light coming together, in Paulo’s journal.

Buon Cammino

for your Journey….

the Morning Rays touch the ripples
of the River flow
Light dancing transient like his life.
memories appear and fade
in his surrender
to the whim of the waves.
he is adrift
guided by his soul vessel
upon this his Journey to the Ocean.
She is before him.
She is so close now
and he must let go
of all the things that have bound him
that in his Freedom he may fly
fleeting like the Light.
the Silent Waters
cleanse and nurure his being
as the Gift of the Ocean draws near.
there are no thoughts
there are no wishes
only the pure Desire of his Self
to enter Her Silent Depths.
he closes his eyes
as a witness of the Beauty within
for soon with his eyes open
he will enter the Ocean.
Light Dancing.

….until all the Rivers reach the Sea

John

There are 2 things that come to my mind reading your beautiful story of this River. First the lyrics of my all time favorite poet JD Morrison (lead singer of The Doors) With courtesy to him, I would love to publish them here.

Secondly: The best aspect of water is that it always streams towards a certain point. I identify with water as an approach for all my problems in life. I just envision the stream towards a perfect solution….and I trust in the end the solution will be there waiting for me.

these are the Doors Lyrics I mean;

Please believe me
The river told me
Very softly
Want you to hold me, ooo
Free fall flow, river flow
On and on it goes
Breathe under water ’till the end
Free fall flow, river flow
On and on it goes
Breathe under water ’till the end
Yes, the river knows
Please believe me
If you don’t need me
I’m going, but I need a little time
I promised I would drown myself in mysticated wine
Please believe me
The river told me
Very softly
Want you to hold me, ooo
I’m going, but I need a little time
I promised I would drown myself in mysticated wine
Free fall flow, river flow
On and on it goes
Breathe under water ’till the end
Free fall flow, river flow
On and on it goes
Breathe under water ’till the end

The Doors~