By Paulo Coelho
Thanks God, I have a lot of blessings in my life. Health, friends, a woman that I love, and a work that fulfills me. I am not saying that I am in Heaven, but at least I am not in Hell.
Hell, according to many religions, is an afterlife suffering where the wicked or unrighteous souls are punished. Within Islam and Christianity, Hell is traditionally depicted as fiery and painful. Some other traditions, however, portray Hell as cold and gloomy. Existence after life is not concrete in Judaism and may be portrayed as a state of neutrality, an eternal nothingness (”sheol”, often mis-translated as hell), simply non-life. For more details in several versions on different hells, please refer to my book “The devil and Miss Prym”.
Three days ago, for the sake of a mind game, some friends and I started to write down a list of things that would certainly make up our personal hell. Our intention was just look to our daily life and recognize what drive each one of us crazy.
Here is my list:
- Not having Internet access
- Not drinking coffee throughout the day
- Seeing all my computer files out of order (and having ANY problems with computers)
- Being forced to wear really colourful clothes from fashion designers
- Being obliged to wake up early and going to sleep early
- Having to attend endless lunches (dinners are OK for me)
- Not being able to take a nap in the afternoon
- Being forbidden to play pinball every now and then
- Being forbidden to do archery
- Waiting in queues
- Having to go to discotheques and talking loudly with friends that can’t hear me because of the noise
- When in the countryside, not walking every morning in the forests.
We all know that the blessings stated in the first paragraph ( health, faith, friends, love, personal legend) are by far the real values of life. But if you have to make a list of insignificant things that take you away from your daily Heaven, what would they be?
Please, this is just a game! But if you wish to participate you are welcome.
Welcome to Share with Friends - Free Texts for a Free Internet
- no coffee for a day
- no mobile phone for a day
- queuing for cabs
- waiting for people
- being thristy (i’m a fish, i live on H2O)
- having little sleep
- having to miss yoga classes due to work
- not having breakfast ( my day cant get started)
1. Waiting for a phone call, text message or any sort of response from the man I’d obsessively tried to reach for 10 hours.
2. Sitting through a Sunday sermon given by any Bush-supporter, or any preacher who equates terrorism with Islam.
3. Walking through a road shaded by palm trees and hearing the chirps of birds without the one I wish could hold my hand.
4. Coming to a wedding and being bombarded with those dreadful questions; “what will you do after you graduate?” “when will you marry, where is the lucky man?” “have you gained weight?”
5. But worst of all, feeling so alone and unanswered during my times of prayer to the One I believe in.
-Having to hear lies all the time.
-Loving someone who doesn’t know I even exist
-Having to study away from my hometown and away from the people I love most.
-Freaking out about exams
-Facing others’ critics and their judgments about the way I look, the kilos I’ve put on and stuff like that.
-Struggling with my allergy
you know what, there’s much more to be thankful for. Let’s remain positive, I’m not saying that we should ignore our problems, but it’s preferable to be optimistic and accept the fact that life is bitter AND sweet at once.
- no coffee and sweets
- no good music
- no internet and cellphone access
- being forced to do daily workouts
- waiting
- losing my train of thoughts
- fear of the unknown
At some time in my life going without any of the things in my life (my kids, my lover, coffee, chocolate, yoga, my car) could have been hell. But now I have gone without all of them for some time at some time. It ain’t so bad. Same for the bad things that have happened: before they showed up their apparition would have seemed hellish. But I’ve live thru far worse than I could have fathomed. But I am still here. Was that, is this hell? Sometimes…. Sometimes heaven.
Everyday-Hell seems to be more in the choices I make every day: the choices as to whether I am in hell or in heaven. The stuff is the same either way. Does a problem occur as hellish, or funny? Hell is when I forget my gift of being who I am. Hell is when I forget to be here, now. Hell is when I judge someone instead of stay tender about them. Hell is when I hate the same job I loved yesterday. Hell is waking up in the morning hating the relentlessness of life instead of leaning on the foundation of my routines. Hell is pretending anyone is forcing me to do or not to do my yoga or anything else. Heaven is fun and everything is funny::Hell sucks and nothing is funny - but what is _in_ either heaven or hell is exactly the same!
Hell for me are the following:
- waking up really early in the morning;
- travelling to work;
- unproductive noise of officemates/workmates;
- dealing with students who are not interested with schooling;
- having to deal with aged superiors.
But at the end of the day, praying won’t be as meaningful if I don’t have those things to bear. It’s just a matter of trusting and belivine thaty God won’t give me my daily hells if He knows I can’t bear each of them.
This is the life!
Hell - just a manifestation of lifes little materialist inconveniences?
What if we had-:
1. No sunshine to warm our bones
2. No night to sleep and recharge the batteries
3. No love that left the heart parched, dry and thirsting
4. No water to drink, that can lubricate my mind and body
5. No earth knowing that man has sucked all its vital forces
6. and FINALLY No God in my life
All else is just fairy floss!!!!!!!
My own personal hell? No guitar to play, tasteless food, loss of chemistry with women, no pen or journal to write my thoughts with, no color, no friends, no love.
The small things in life that make me go crazy:
- everyday the son is not shining
- a day without doing at least some small sport
- a boss looking down on me
- not knowing what to eat for lunch
- no time to access my emails
- a day without my friends
there you go. This are the small things in life that make me go crazy
There is nothing worse than not being able to see the persons you love everyday.