Dear readers,
I’m back from Milan and on Thursday I had a conference at the Teatro Dal Verme with the mathematician Michael Atiyah. This very important matematician made a very interesting speech in which he mentions the bumblebee. Indeed, according to the laws of aerodynamics and of physics, the bumbleblee should not fly. Yet, as Sir Michael Atyiah said : “the bumblebee flies because it doesn’t know about the technicalities of aerodynamics.”
That leads us to the question of the week:
How many things we don’t do in life because we think beforehand that they are impossible? Like everybody says that the bulblebee is incapable of flying?
It seems that society decides for you what to do.
They (YOUTH of EGYPT) see that their fathers made a living by working in the Gulf Area - wither in Oil Companies, Multinational Pharmaceutical Companies, Hospitals, Construction Companies etc. Yet they follow the same path without considering their personal legend.
I chose to work in Africa and break all the traditions though I was always asked for one reason explaining why I would leave a successful career with a multinational company and work in what they consider the last part of the world!!
In Africa, I knew who I am and had more time to discover my personal legend.
Wither the call me crazy, insane or even fanatical - I still know what I want, enjoying what I do and will continue to work for it until the last day of my life.
“”Yet, as Sir Michael Atyiah said : “the bumblebee flies because it doesn’t know about the technicalities of aerodynamics.””
Sir Michael spoke like an average student of science, a good student would have said ” Oh ! so as per our laws the bumblebee can’t fly, but living proof is there that it can fly, so something must be yet to be explored about ‘our’ laws” the pride of knowledge ! i tell u it makes one even forget that all our laws are temporary, evolving !
and i thought making spelling mistakes is my personal priviledge, at one place u write “bumbleblee” and at another u write ( last line ) “bulblebee”, took me two minutes to discover ! angry, but i don’t balme you, these word processors and their spell check softwares, they would make us forget the spellings !
love
aditya
anyway ! who are laymen to question experts !
“How many things we don’t do in life because we think beforehand that they are impossible?” manytimes, may many times, but on a gross majority of those occassions, it seems to be a camaflouge for laziness !! at least that is how it seems if i go by my personal expereince. laziness, a kind of weariness !
“Like everybody says that the bulblebee is incapable of flying? ” hey paulo ! and now u have got it wrong !!! other than the experts of aerodyamics and some other experts, no one who has ever seen a bulblebee fly would say that bulbleee is incapable of flying, how can u say everybody says thus !!
I always believe that whatever people say about doing something, as long as you yourself feel its right and lawful, one should go all out to achieve what they want, be it their hopes, dreams or ambition.
Why will the comments of others matter to you when you’re determined about working for the things you want badly? It is only when your motivation for something isn’t strong that one will falter and give up in pursuit of the dreams.
So whether you’re a bumblebee or an elegant bird, there is no such thing as being “incapable” to fly.
so folks in my previous submission, it got all jumbled up, trying to get to the bumblebee, so here it is in correct sequence. ( in case there are moderators, request them to delete my last submission, and maybe upto this brackept too).
“”Yet, as Sir Michael Atyiah said : “the bumblebee flies because it doesn’t know about the technicalities of aerodynamics.””
Sir Michael spoke like an average student of science, a good student would have said ” Oh ! so as per our laws the bumblebee can’t fly, but living proof is there that it can fly, so something must be yet to be explored about ‘our’ laws” the pride of knowledge ! i tell u it makes one even forget that all our laws are temporary, evolving !
anyway ! who are laymen to question experts !
“How many things we don’t do in life because we think beforehand that they are impossible?” manytimes, many many times, but on a gross majority of those occassions, it seems to be a camaflouge for laziness !! at least that is how it seems if i go by my personal expereince. laziness, a kind of weariness !
“Like everybody says that the bulblebee is incapable of flying? ” hey paulo ! and now u have got it wrong !!! other than the experts of aerodyamics and some other experts, no one who has ever seen a bulblebee fly would say that bulbleee is incapable of flying, how can u say everybody says thus !!
and i thought making spelling mistakes is my personal priviledge, at one place u write “bumbleblee” and at another u write ( last line ) “bulblebee”, took me two minutes to discover ! angry, but i don’t balme you, these word processors and their spell check softwares, they would make us forget the spellings !
love
aditya
Believe you can walk on water and…you will? Hmm..maybe.:-)
but don’t we do things also because some of them require to walk on life like Napoleon?
“Have a heart and look into the heart” Adam Mickiewicz
Is it possible to make everyone happy? Is it possible to love everybody?
love
Agnieszka
We have learnt at school that every Law has its….exception and I liked always to think and dream of this exceprion, being an..artist [at heart]. The revolution, the extra-ordinary used to make my fantasy fly..To obey the laws is easy, because the only thing you have to do is to follow the rules, but then we will be dead from boredom! Imagination is our power and then we can ..fly. LOVE, THELMA
If we listen to our heart, it tells us that nothing is impossible..we just have to hear it and believe it ;) Love, Paul
Wikipedia: Flight
According to 20th century folklore, the laws of aerodynamics prove that the bumblebee should be incapable of flight, as it does not have the capacity (in terms of wing size or beat per second) to achieve flight with the degree of wing loading necessary. Not being aware of scientists ‘proving’ it cannot fly, the bumblebee succeeds under “the power of its own arrogance”.[23] The origin of this myth has been difficult to pin down with any certainty. John McMasters recounted an anecdote about an unnamed Swiss aerodynamicist at a dinner party who performed some rough calculations and concluded, presumably in jest, that according to the equations, bumblebees cannot fly.[24] In later years McMasters has backed away from this origin, suggesting that there could be multiple sources, and that the earliest he has found was a reference in the 1934 French book Le vol des insectes by M. Magnan. Magnan is reported to have written that he and a M. Saint-Lague had applied the equations of air resistance to insects and found that their flight was impossible, but that “One shouldn’t be surprised that the results of the calculations don’t square with reality”.[25]
It is believed that the calculations which purported to show that bumblebees cannot fly are based upon a simplified linear treatment of oscillating aerofoils. The method assumes small amplitude oscillations without flow separation. This ignores the effect of dynamic stall, an airflow separation inducing a large vortex above the wing, which briefly produces several times the lift of the aerofoil in regular flight. More sophisticated aerodynamic analysis shows that the bumblebee can fly because its wings encounter dynamic stall in every oscillation cycle. [26]
But it is still fantastic and beautiful! :-)
Josephine
So interesting and excited about your question!!! Today, I have realized this same question. As a child I dreamed of becoming something, and ended up pursuing something else. However, I have realized that although it was something else I pursued, God meant for me to experience and learn from this different profession. I have learned my strength, and gift. Now, I feel I have to decide. Either continue with this path of what has been given to me? I know I will be blessed if I continue. Or, pursue what I know is my potential, and do it with confidence. With my gift I have learned, and in doing what my dream has been, I know I will be able to touch more human souls. I accepted this was all planned out for me to decide at this point in my life. Interesting fact: Prior to reading your blog question just now. I had spent over an hour journaling my thoughts, and coming to my conclusion and decision. I went back and fourth in my thoughts, from anger, to doubt, to realization that I am not in control as I thought I was… We are all warriors of Light.
note the word vortex - same as in your book “The Witch from Portobello”…
maybe we can´t count the number of things we DON´T do, unless they are possible, ´cause literary EVERYTHING is possible…so there´s no limit in number.
however, if we think of things being impossible to do etc., maybe this is already the first step of their manifestation, ´cause we at least think of them, so we can somehow imagine that they exist, even if we don´t have a path or a kind of bridge that leads us to their manifestation. but what about all the things we can´t even imagine? and here it gets tricky: do they exist? well, maybe not in the same way we experience things usually. it´s like quantumphysics. we create or world. we chose which of the possibilities become part of it.
and another question arises here: how can you transform the mind. or in other words: if we know that´s something IS possible, like flying for example, but we got some old concept of impossibility on the mind - how can we change that? what is needed for a change like that. a conscious thought is obviously not enough. you probably have to envolve your whole being, your heart and believing…but how to come to that point? what makes the bublebee fly?
That bumblebee reminded me of your story with that remarkable man who climbed mountain Everest, even though ‘laws of nature’ were crying out loud that he couldnt…But he definitely ‘flew’ and then climbed other mountains too, proving that man has so many possibilities…and we have forgotten them..
Sometimes all you need is courage…to try…
So maybe , if all had the courage to try, for everything that we dream of, we would fly up high…and not restrain ourselves to what is easily reachable…we are afraid of trying..we are afraid of failure..
that can relate almost to everything..for exaqmple, it is easier to buy a meal from a restaurant than make a home-cooked meal..But the key difference is this, whatever you do with all your heart -when commiting yourself to it, and considering every moment spending in it as precious and amazing and worthwhile, whether trying to climb the Everest, or sail across seas, or the simpliest thing of cooking for your loved ones and yourself, - you re not gonna fail…cause you are yourself..and you make your voice and your ’song’ be heard
Love and Graditude
Annie
All the things our heart daily demands.
I am sorry for my english.
this was translated online and from soulless Machine.
SORRY
I have other conception of our beginnings at the beginning was the idea and not the word, the idea floated into our thinking up to the word became and starting from this moment to be reality.. If we are still small and unloaded, beyond of physical laws and the moral feasiblly or not feasible were, have experiment and something tried which for the loaded ADULTS would be not conceivable. Unfortunately this spirit propotional too our ARISING become curved!
We forgotten of which we are nevertheless capable we bend themselves given basic conditions. But one would have to only discover all these valid laws of nature not sometime and who says all laws investigates and are discovered and are absolute? How often an up to then law was questioned and again-put. The crucial is the fact that such transversethinks was this world a better sometimes in addition, worse made.
I legend „let us not our soul into select shank live, let us release and the apparently impossible possible to make.
a very dear friend Paul fron austria, nothing is impossible .. the heart holds many mysteries, but above all faith
with love
Pilar
Hello Paulo,
Its amazing how you open up to the world. And its such a gift for all.
Regarding the question of the week, its very true, in my life i did not take certain steps because somebody told me that I couldn`t do it.Even though I knew instincttively that I wanted to pursue a particular goal.
But again I have found a goal and following the bumble bee.
I guess the bumblebee would have done better in life than me if it would have been in my place..hehe
Take care and thank you,
Priya
Sorry my writing english is not very good…
Beaucoup de choses par moment nous semble imposible à accomplir… et pourquoi… parce qu’ont nous l’a dit ou bien parce qu’on ne croit pas asser en soi… On ma dit a plusieurs reprises que je ne pourrai pas accomplir le travail dans lequel j’ai étudier… et pourtant j’ai terminé mes études avec succès et aujourd’hui, après avoir terminer depuis 2ans mes études je ne travail toujours pas dans mon domaine… pourquoi donc… j’ai une peur atroce de ne pas parvenir a mon objectif parce que c’est ce qu’on ma dit… Je crois qu’il est préférable de ne pas savoir, comme le bourdon, qu’on ne peut accomplir quelque chose, de cette façon rien ne nous empêche d’y parvenir ou du moins de l’essayer.
with love Geneviève
Interesting question Paulo - hmmm I think that when we are babies we naturally learn to crawl ,take steps ,then walk ,climb skip,and run .But what if we where shown that we could do anything ..its only our limits or that of others that place these things on us ,Masters can manifest things straight into their hands ,some amazing highly evolved souls even children can move things with their minds ..there is so much of our brain /potential that is not tapped into yet .I have seen this email of a dog that gets around walking upright on two legs ..I always wanted to be an actress when I was younger but told it was a stupid thing to pursue ,but its funny it was the only thing that got me threw high school -I ran the drama club and went on to study lots of things -speech ,theater and acting but as in all things I wanted to bare my soul and express from the heart ..and in order to do that we need to free ourselves up ..let go of hurts and heal past wounds ..all this helps us evolve ,reach new horizons and spread our wings so that we can fly and be all that God intended for us to be …one of my mother Earth nature cards has a picture of a bumble bee on it sitting on a flower and it says “Busy -Busy every hour ..remember to take in the essence of the flower “.Blessings Tania:-)
Ps Agnieszka it is possible to love everybody ..
We may not make everybody happy all the time ,its hard to please everybody ,we should just make ourselves happy first then when people see we are happy -joyful and content then this demonstrates to them that they can do the same ,shine their lights as well ..Love and Light to you all -Tania *
I agree; many of us let our fears and apprehensions stop us from doing the things we really want to do because the thought of failing at something that you truly desire is too horrible. We set our goals lower so that we know we will not fail at them, when in fact we have already failed because we did not try to achieve the thing we really wanted.
Nowadays, bother writing a book if you don’t have pre-existing public visibility and you know much about today’s publishing industry: “If you are submitting a nonfiction book proposal without a marketing platform, you are wasting your time.” - Literary Marketplace
But I’ve done it anyway.
Paul - originalfaith.com
The time that I was trainning martial arts, I was able to see wonderful things from my sensei. I never thought such things were possible… Physical demonstrations of strenght, endurance, skills… Those things inspired me to change, to achieve things that I thought were unreachable for me. I will start considering the fact that bumblebees might believe in Magic.
It’s safer to walk or ‘fly’ when you know the limits.. But I think life is richer when you dare to explore and forget about limits.
Thanks Paulo, thanks guys.
When you speak of the bumblebee and mathematical laws that state through equation that it is impossible for it to take flight, and yet it does, it makes me think of the way that humans define the world. Through the pragmatic eyes of science, mathematics, philosoophy, religion, sprituality, etc. the world is narrowed down into tunnels of words that limit the universe by the very way that they define what exists. Nature doesn’t know that she’s supposed to follow any rules or that she is supposed to be something in particular … she just is.
I think of other small creatures, like the hummingbird, that can fly forward, backward, side to side, up and down and also just hover, two feet away from your face, looking you in the eye just because she is curious. How effortless it is for her to swim through the air…
Equations and definitions may be what we begin with, but imagination and Nature herself will take you into the realm of the magical, where a bee’s flight is as effortless as breath itself. In that realm, I can be the bee, I am that hummingbird.
Until Yesterday, I was trapped in the word “Impossible” …
Wanting to do something soo much, but believing it is impossible; I dont have enough money..too much work to do here at home..and I just can’t do it.
Yesterday I decided to change my way of thinking…decide that I will do what I want…and since I have a month or so…I will work on doing it..
I will be in Italy in a month or so :)
Once upon a time…
in “Austria” (please insert your own country ;)
A baby Eagle fell out of it’s nest.
A farmer came by and upon seeing the poor little fledgling,
he decided to take it back to his hof and care for it.
The farmer decided to put the little Eagle in the chicken run,
and there it grew up feeling quite at home with chickens.
The farmer did not pay attention the Eagle anymore and it grew up not having learned to fly.
The Eagle grew to a very old age until it reached that final hour.
As it lay on the ground looking up into the sky it saw an Eagle, soaring high and so gracefully above…..
And it sighed, taking it’s last breaths….and said
“That’s what I should like to have been….an Eagle!”
My moral to this story is, never simply accept a situation, look at all your possibilities and go for your dreams with courage.
Love to you all & just FLY, Paul
Bumblebees fly cause they are DEAF.
if we decide to be a bumblebee everything is possible :)
A very interesting question… Whenever I hear the word law to describe a set of rules I always think of how laws are described in The Kybalion. Laws are real and they exist but how they work depends on the context. A magus cannot go agaist the laws but he uses them in a way that’s not standard.
For example, if you have a swinging pendulum and you sit at the bottom of the rope, you’ll make big swoops back and forth. However if you raise your position, move closer to the source of the rope, the swinging will be much less. And eventually when you reach the source and there’s no swinging at all. The whole time the rope is subject to the same laws - it’s your point of view that was different.
And that’s how I like to think of the physics (or any other laws) we’re subject to. Maybe a lot of the time we’re only taught a small part of the laws that govern our universe. And if we do something that doesn’t fit with the “known” laws, then it’s thought of as impossible. It’s our beliefs that hold us back the most. I believe impossible things are possible and I believe in “miracles”. :) The more I believe the more they happen!
And to answer your question Paulo, I have impossible things happen around me on a daily basis. One of those was how I came across your books at the exact moment I needed their message the most. :) Thank you from the bottom of my heart for helping me believe!!
With Love and Light,
Vanya
The question is great! My parents said me something that confirms that we can do what ever we want if we don’t know that we “can’t ” do it. I hope you understand me. Here is a situation from my real life. When I was a walking baby, don’t know the age, my parents went to the shoping center. They bought a lot of stuff. It was so heavy that when they entered the house, they just put the bags near the door and got on the sofa to rest. They wanted to take the bags later, and then I, who were just a baby, took these heavy bags, walked with these heavy bags and got to my parents. They couldn’t believe! Then they were kidding that I’m a little Rambo :) This situation proves that we can do everything, but just if we don’t have any barrier. That barrier means that we know something is too heavy for us, that no one can take it, no possible human being. And I was a baby, I didn’t knew that I “can’t” do it-take the heavy bags…I just took them and laughed.
Your books are great..I’m just reading “Witch from Portobello”…keep on going so…you have great ideas…and great cognitions :D
Thanks Tania, though they were rather rhetoric questions.
Yes..the happiness is contagious, everybody who observe it wants to feel like that, so when you’re happy you become an example, you’re spread the joy around.
And yes I know, you can love everyone, but not the same way.
Anyway, everything is possible if we believe and.. if we want to go to any extend, no matter what.
lots of love to you and all
Agnieszka
P.S. Great story Paul, thank you.
My dad used to say; Behave like a girl! I wanted to cover my body in paint and play Cowboys and Indians in the woods with my two brothers.
At present, forty years later, I spend my days on an Indian Reservation, in spite of being light skinned, blond haired and not speaking any of the native language. The general perception is; The tribe is too rough, too dangerous. You will fail.
My reward is to get to relate to some very sweat hearted individuals, who includes a stranger and tell me; You are a different kind of Indian. We all laugh out loud. I’m honored they want to hang out with me.
I might be as clumsy and awkward as a bumblebee, but I’m still flying…
Buzz, buzz, buzz
Heart
Suggesting that science could not explain the workings of a bumblebee only tells me one thing: science is in its infancy. For science to claim something cannot work and regard that as the absolute truth is spurious because science can only explain itself to the present moment in time.
This is twisted logic if you will allow me to say so…
What the bumblebee knows or does not know should not be the focal point of this argument. This attempt to somehow give the bumblebee “human” qualities is amateurish and distracting.
It is also downright preposterous to say that humans are more inclined to succeed when they do not understand the complexities of the problem or the factors leading to it.
How a person interprets this statement about the bumblebee will determine its significance to him/her. Some people take the abstract view of it all too easily, forgetting the other side - the practical side.
Phew!
As the novelist Pearl S. Buck said:
“All things are possible until they are proved impossible - and even the impossible may only be so, as of now.”
Or to quote Napoleon Bonaparte:
“Impossible is a word to be found only in the dictionary of fools.”
So believe in your dreams, however, impossible they may seem.
Best wishes
Nickolove
Our eyes just see the things that we expect to see..we just do things as we believe the world is. We build the world everyday new according to our belifs, I mean the way it is described to us..We have no idea of the real world.
So I just can’t answer this question…
Perhaps it is because we do not fully understand the world we live in …that the possibilities of what we can achieve is INFINITE.
i guess it is safe to say that : ignorance is indeed bliss! ( in this case at least)
bee a bunblebee….fly fly fly ….defy the world and FLY!!
Jananie
What a good theme to pay attention to.We may be conditioned by prejudices too many times in our life.Taking was was said by others like a kind of law,is very hindering thing.We are back to the ideas of using our brains,natural instincts,having faith,because faith can move mountains,and we must question what is given us by so called wise men.
Dear Paulo,
your question inspired me to the following story:
The bumblebee and the dragonfly
A big bumblebee was once sitting relaxed on a great bloom enjoying the warm summer sun when a dragonfly was flying along. The dragonfly said: “Hey, you heavyweight of a bumblebee, you seem to be much too clumsy and lazy to become airborne! Look at me, I am slim and elegant, I can float without a sound in the air and I also can suddenly change the direction of my flight at lightning speed. You have to struggle with flying, isn’t it? I don’t know why God has given you wings – he must have fooled around creating you!”
The dragonfly performed some of her skills of flying in front of the bumblebee.
The bumblebee watched it without a comment.
The dragonfly continued: ”I even can make love with my husband in the air! This is really great! Fat bumblebees like you would surely crash at once if you would dare to make a trial!” The dragonfly laughed loudly, then it waited for the bumblebee’s reaction.
The bumblebee kept silence for some time and then replied: ”I know I am not the best in flying among the insects and there are some mathematicians that even affirm I should not be able to fly at all, but God gave me wings and so I fly. He has also given me a sting to defend me - and you should consider you have none - but I only use it when someone is threatening me, I don’t use it in the case of mockery. Last not least God has given me a thick fluffy skin to bear as well provocative statements of mathematicians as impudent boasters like you without being agitated! As you can see, I am optimally equipped for life!.”
Then the bumblebee began to hum loudly and some seconds later it became airborne. The dragonfly still darted hectically from side to side a little bit and then flew away in a different
direction.
People don’t expect impossible things to happen, (impossible in the sense of “if someone else could not do sth, then nobody can”)
but the fact is that those things always happen.
Everyday we have in front of us the chance to live and enjoy a miracle, and none of us is aware of it… So, we end up thinking that there are things that we just can’t do, when there’s actually this chance that they might occur.. that we could be able to do sth just because we believe in that, and in our willness.
We are like bumblebees… we could do things that we shouldn’t be able to… and that is a miracle…
So, why do they fly? …For the same reason we have hope and believe in miracles…
:)
Dear Nickolove,
what about this saying: “walk like Napoleon - over the dead bodies” ?
love
Agnieszka
IMpossible is the word which if broken becomes I M possible. Everyday we wake up and we think that certain things in life are possible and some are impossible. We then judge before doing the thing. Before the reality of experiencing we judge ourselves that we cannot do it.
To those who do not experience and judge by themselves that those things cannot be done, I would like to ask one question- Why are you not trying ? Give a shot and then see. Life is for a moment, and why not to live in the moment rather think of future and past. When a person is capable of living in moment then he is capable of making things possible.
There are many things we cannot try and some times we have to just leave them not thinking those are impossible but by giving some shorts of priorities to them and letting them go.
Nothing could be possible until we have a mind which will let us think that everything is possible. An animal can finds its own way to the finding the needs and fulfill its desire.
A fly is fly it means it has a capability of flying. I do not know whether that type of flies can really fly or not but I think it tries its level best before it dies.
“Try, try and try until you die”. Every thing is based on making things possible and not thinking ahead before giving it a full experience and knowing by own-self. When a person knows by himself or herself then he can easily teach others about what he felt when he tried the things which he was assuming were impossible in the first place.
You are such a treasure! From the bottom of my heart thank you!
The story of the Bumble bee has been a recurring theme in my life. A few weeks before my father passed away we had a discussion where I was lamenting about my new position. I felt I had taken on more than I could handle and was afraid I simply could not do what was being asked of me. My father being a man of very few opinions turned to me and said, “You can do anything you put your mind too! Remember always, You can do it!” There words I choose to hold close to my heart.
Those few words have been my hot poker pushing me to go further and be less afraid. However sometimes it is easier said than done. I just want to thank you for being my feather today. The World is truly a magical place and you are one the gifts it bestows us.
From the bottom of my heart, Thank You!
Maria
“the bumblebee flies because it doesn’t know about the technicalities of aerodynamics.”
the same goes for the swan, who according to the laws of physics should be so exhausted after take off, that it has to land and eat to replenish the burnt calories, yet instead of landing the swan flies for 2000km during seasonal migration!
this is one of the examples why i always preferred biology to physics, because physics tried to explain nature through man made laws, but nature is simply so much more than what some scientist can fathom. if you want to understand the laws of nature then just look at nature rather than read a book on physics. this is where you learn and understand.
to illustrate this i would like to give you another example:
200 years ago nobody could measure electricity, nobody could use electricity, but still electricity existed since the beginning of time. if we carry on only believing what science can explain we carry on living in a tiny box. go, open your eyes, look at the world around you, and believe in the inexplainable.
and let me finish by telling you a story: as a child i did gymnastics and i was rather good at it. one day my teacher told me to do a cartwheel. so i did. then he told me to do a cartwheel with one hand. so i did. then he told me to do a cartwheel without using my hands. so i did. yet had i thought “what, no hands on the floor, this is impossible, i will fall on my head if i do that” then i could not have done it! but i did do it, because my teacher believed that i could do it. and because i just did what he believed i could do.
life is full of things like this. all the time. but every so often we think in negatives, look at all the things that are hard and think them impossible. that is silly, it really is. hard is hard, difficult is difficult, but everything is possible. a cartwheel with no hands is actually quite easy… it just seems hard ;)
I think that our mind make possible or impossible the entire thing… by the little one to the more big….
Less then a year ago my life change completely, because I find a person that was very important for me. I never know him, and he could by die… But I don’t stop my search. An impossible thing became possible.
But when Mr. Coelho came to Milan last week, I hadn’t success in moving near him to ask a question, an enormous scream of ridiculous come to me and block my actions. A possible thing became impossible.
Isn’t necessary disturb the bumblebee, to find examples (is really a nice and helpful example), they will always flies against all the physics laws, while we must win against a lot of preconceptions that block our actions.
Love, Annalisa
(I left the Italian translation because my English is really really bad, and I make off sure a lot of mistake)
penso che la nostra mente renda possibili o impossibili tutte le cose… dalle più piccole alle più grandi… in meno di un anno la mia vita è cambiata totalmente, perchè sono riuscita a ritrovare una persona molto importante per me, ma che non avevo mai conosciuto e che poteva essere morta, e così una cosa impossibile è diventata possibile… però quando il Signor Coelho è venuto a Milano settimana scorsa non sono riuscita ad avvicinarmi per fargli una domanda… sarà stata la folla, ma mi era venuta una paura enorme del ridicolo che mi ha bloccato, e così una cosa possibile è diventata impossibile.
Non è necessario scomodare i bombi per trovare degli esempi, loro continueranno a volare contro tutte le leggi della fisica, mentre noi dobbiamo ancora vincere molti preconcetti che ci bloccano.
Hola,
Es una bella historia, pero la afirmación que, según las leyes de la aerodinámica, el abejorro no puede volar, me parece un poco exagerada ;).
Amo la ciencia por que, a diferencia de lo que todos creen, no nos proporciona una respuesta a las preguntas que tenemos, sino mas que eso, nos proporciona un método para buscar las respuestas por nosotros mismos (el método científico).
En efecto, la ciencia no responde las preguntas, ni impone restricciones. Nos proporciona un método para responder nuestras preguntas, y ir mas allá de nuestras restricciones.
Salu2, y gracias… (por cierto, sus libros son todos sensacionales)
Diego.
PD. Puede encontrar un video sobre la belleza y la ciencia, es una entrevista a Richard Feynman, uno de los grandes Científicos del siglo pasado, en la siguiete direccion:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zSZNsIFID28
lo recomiendo…
actually i belive that the word ( impossible ) doesn’t really exist …the most imaginarey things of the most difficult things are Exist … so that you can think about it … the only thing that make it so far away, thewhat i call ( the know how )…the know how is term i prefer to the right way to apporach thing …u think that’s impossible to go a sun by a rocket duo to heat ..actually we can’t overcome the heat till now .. so we don’t know HOw to go there..
So i treat all my issues from this consept … just try to find the right way to get into it or to find it.. that will take several of times of experiments BUt at least you try to get what you want…so i do every thing trying to get what i want … try to reply mY mails
LOVe
MO’taz MOhamed Fetteha
impossible or mmmmmm possible????
Have a beatiful day, everyone
Love and Graditude
Annie
p.s Dear Patricia Lorenz i really liked your example with the swan
p.s. We can chose to be ugly ducklings, not accepting who we are or our possibilities, or beautiful swans… like the eye-opening story that Paul from Austria has mentioned with the eagle
Hello!
My name Olesya. I from Russia the city of Krasnodar.
I am very grateful that you are!
I have understood much when have read through the book “Alchemist” and then and all the others. I have come to be in a complex vital situation. When to me badly I re-read your lines. I know that such letters to you comes millions. But I am still young and I am admired your books.
Thanks you! Continue your creativity I live owing to it!
Olesya of 17 years
An apple doen’t fall to the earth because of law of gravitation but due to gravity.
Hi Paulo Coelho, this is Ramesh, from Chennai,India. “Like the flowing river” was wonderful.Your kind of writers are the most important professionals that world needs today, because only you can make people think, inspire and make them move towards peace.
There are many things we don’t do because we decide fore-hand, that it cannot be done. It depends on the individuals. Let me tell you a story, which was said by my favorite actor, Rajinikanth, in a function.
There were a group of frogs living at the base of a hill. One day a few frogs decided to get to the top of the hill. There were a few other frogs, who were confident that this cannot happen.They stood at the base of the hill watching the frogs that were going up. They just didn’t stand there simply, they kept shouting about the dangers that came before the climbing frogs. Every time they shouted the frogs that were climbing, started to fall one by one.
But to the surprise of the frogs that stood at the base, one frog reached to the top of the hill.
The frogs at the base were taken aback by this and started to en quire among themselves who that frog was…
One frog said, “Oh… he..? He is Deaf D’Souza”
We have such frogs both inside and outside of us. We only need to chose which shouts we must heed and which we must not.
Hi Paulo,
Thanks for another amazing insight! Its so true, when I was at school the teachers told me not to apply to uni to study English because I wasn’t good enough and wouldn’t get into the uni I wanted to go to, so I went to another uni to study languages, but ended up dropping out because it wasn’t what I wanted to do. I reapplied to the uni I wanted and got an unconditional offer to study Philosophy and Literature which I love :). Thanks again for your writing, your blog really helps me get a perspective on life every day.
Lots of love
Fi x*x
It’s one of the ideas in Alchemist, or at least it was the way it spoke to me. When one truly believes and is open-hearted, he can do anything he sets his heart and mind to. Even turn into wind. People don’t usually turn into wind. But how many of us really try to? How many of us really try to do something out of the ordinary in our lives? I’m not talking about climbing Mount Everest or tearing apart the atoms or building another Great Wall of China (even if all of those have been done by human beings and not some bionic out-of-space-super-advanced creatures). I’m talking about anything that is out of the daily routine.
As one of my friends told me several years ago “Today can be anything you want to make it. You can be anything you want to be.” And as Mr. Coelho wrote it, the only reason people don’t go after their dreams is because of the fear of failure. The truth is, impossible is nothing. We just need to stop over-thinking and over-worrying and over-doubting. We need to believe.
uhhhh well, actually wikipedia has a scientific explanation on how the Bumblebee flies!
it seems that the knowledge available then could not explain the flight, but scientists working backwards have actually found out!
I do not care for the scientific explanations recently found out about how the bumblebee flies or if they are true. I do care however that the idea behind Paulo’s statement is that fear and limiting thoughts need to be banished if you are to do anything worthwile in your life.
I forgot how to dream for some time thinking it was better to be cynical and ‘realistic’-but if that means banishing all notions of falling in love, using the universe to attract goodness into my life, if that means all humans are evil and that nothing good exists in this world-then I’d rather not be realistic.
I’d much rather live instead of exist chase my dreams with passion and great abandon, leave ego aside and take the proverbial leap into the unknown…because when I lie on my deathbed I am not going to care whether or not the mathematician was correct….I’m going to remember that everything I ever wanted to do..I did, I ceased to exist and I started to live.
“Dream big and dare to fail”
. . . there is always a scientific theory for everything. . . (sometiems these theories evolve, sometimes they are abandoned, but there is always a theory)
however for me the real mystery of the bumblebee is why he is so perfect (like all creatures of this world). He is so wonderful to watch and gives me such joy when he visits my garden. I love their furry coats, their stocky bodies and their buzz buzzing, they are so dedicated to their job and enjoy the rewards of their collecting pollen by drinking sweet nectar.
Pure perfection, in a furry coat.
Hi I don’t think this is the right place but is it all true ?Your writing leaves me spell bound:)Btu I want to know what is fictiona nd what is not…confused!
Obstacles crumble in the shadow of death.
No matter what path I take, I will always end up at the same event.
Death allows you to make mistakes without paying for them forever.
That is why I do what I please.
And so we live by and with the myths
which nourishes our souls.
“Impossible” is only something which
takes a bit longer time to make possible.
Humans couldn’t fly,
they do now.
The moon was a place for fantastic stories
by Jules Verne - we have walked there now.
Electricity was an unknown power… until some
people started making experiements. Teylers
museum in Haarlem (NL) have a nice collection
from the childhood of electrical engineering.
and soon there will be a movie made
by several readers of a book…
“Science” and visions go hand in hand,
how could there ever be any research made
if the researcher isn’t curious?
Hi every body ,
I just wanted to say that one’s imagination is the only boundry, to me, age, colour, gender, disabilities and all such stuff is just a thing for us to make ourselves feel better after failure.
When you try harder next time ,you can always overcome your biggest incapabilities, to achive what ever you desire.Sadly , the only thing that keeps us away from this is our impatient behaviour and sometimes ,the conventional way of thinking.
Thanks!
Hamza Iqbal, 13
Pakistan
How many things we don’t do in life because we think beforehand that they are impossible?”"
mmmmmmmmm
if you ask “How many things we do in life that they are not impossible??
it will be easyer..
So the thing what i say impossible to do is:
To be good person
because i don’t believe i am
a good one :(
***
i believe inside of me i can change the world
but in the same time i believe i can’t change it
by using the easier way
every thing in this world is hard and impossible .
some times even dreams is impossible..
what a world !!
hmm… i seldom think about things i can’t do. if i think about it i usually try to do it or else not think about it at all (or for the time being).
Mr.Coelho, let us to try answer this Q other way.
B’coz I think there is others technicalities theories which we don’t discovered yet.
what do toy think ?
dos finales diferentes:
Mirando a la cuchara, el joven se dio cuenta de que las había derramado.
-Pues este es el único consejo que puedo darte – dijo el más Sabio de los Sabios-. El secreto de la felicidad está en saber mirar todas las maravillas del mundo, sin olvidarse nunca de las dos gotas de aceite de la cucharilla.
/
Mirando a la cuchara, el joven se dio cuenta de que las había derramado y se mostró preocupado. Las gotas de aceite ya no estaban en la cuchara y habían manchado su ropa. Rápidamente pidió disculpas al maestro y pidió una nueva oportunidad.
-Este es el único consejo que puedo darte – dijo el más Sabio de los Sabios-. El secreto de la felicidad está en que andes por el mundo sin que te importe lo que le pase a dos estúpidas gotas de aceite.
I have taken the better part of this week to really think about this. It is a big issue with me and I seemed to have been confronted with it a lot over the past few weeks.
Seems everywhere I turn I am told something can not be done, something can not be fixed, and of course the age old excuse that it is the way it has always been done.
I have a difficult time with this because it seems so many people have just bought into this. And no matter what you say, what you do, or what you can show them, there is just no convincing them that things can change.
Some people fear change, so they cling to what is going on because it gives them comfort. Most, don’t want to beleive something can be done becuase they were unable to do it, and thus don’t want to see someone else do it as well.
However, personally I have seen to much accomplished over the years to beleive that much of anything can not be done. We just need people willing to do it.
Hello Mr. Coelho,
Do bumblebees fly intuitively? They can fly and don’t care why they can, they just enjoy flying and use it in their advantage? We should follow their example. Every day we give up dreams because they don’t have an logical explanation or they are too unreal, or we restrain us of talking with others, even family or close friends, because what we have to say may not have a scientific explanation or a clear logic, or because we can’t anticipate what others will think about, and we are afraid of repeating evident facts and things, be ridiculized or judged. Is the obsession of logic, reason and significance preventing some or many of us to enjoy our freedom, experience life with intensity?
We are constraint to think so … Not everyone can dare to think beyond because not everyone has the mind for it , so the jumps we make against all odds are not possible all the time.Why ? Because instead of thinking beyond we can’t do we simply refuse to do … and lose time as being ordinary and with the fear to try … We are submissive to the rest and get the same mentality , we are afraid to think differently because we may be mocked , we don’t dare to dream or we don’t have the time … in this fast paced world we live in dreaming is a thing we do when we sleep.We can’t be blamed for not succeding but mostly for agreeing with the fact that we can’t do more … Trying , hoping , wishing , daring … that breaks all the laws of phisics or science … mind over matter!
The reason the bumble bee doesn’t fly is his innocence, not ignorance. He does not know science or regulations set up by the society. He lives his life to the full, enjoys it and has a blast. The bumble bee is like a child, who faces life with an open heart and open eyes. Why do we lose the innocence of just living, enjoying life and taking it as an adventure? Our upbringing, the environment, rules and regulations & norms given to us by those around us and the society at large: all these set up limits for us in our hearts and minds. Any spiritual or religious discovery or bliss is a result of letting go of those limitations and daring to live, breathe, experience and try our limits; or rather, to abandon them. We are to thrust ourselves to the experience called life with reckless abandon, to be open to whatever comes our way and then enjoy the freedom. Love happens when we are open. Miracles and discoveries are there for the taking. Happiness is there. We walk on waters and we fly.
Dear Author, thank you for this interesting and enlightening forum to discuss matters that matter!
I just recently discovered these pages — great place to exchange views! Everyone, enjoy your day!
I discovered your novel, The Alchemist, a book I read a week before I gave a eulogy for my mother-in-law, Marge, from my first marriage. Her son, my husband Phil, died in an auto accident in 1977. I read The Alchemist on June 15, 2008. The Alchemist seemed to draw me to it, as if my husband Phil, and Marge, too, intended for me to read it and use it to share in my eulogy with family members and friends and as a message to me, as well, to remember and not give up my dreams. A psychologist and drug counselor, my husband Phil was also a follower of Carlos Castaneda. That you posted Carlos Castaneda’s reflections the day before my mother-in-law died, she died on May 29 and was in delusions on May 28, seemed surreal. I discovered your Warrior of Light website only by accident, and used the Castaneda reflections you posted in my eulogy for family members and friends. My mother-in-law fought her last battle with a rare form of breast cancer that was discovered inadvertently by a visiting doctor in Los Alamos, New Mexico. Marge decided to undergo chemotherapy at 83, even though she knew this would only give her a few months more to live. Her message to all of us, as would be a message Phil would also want to tell us, was to fight the good fight as if every fight is your last, that it is not whether you win or lose but that you fight the fight that matters. A service was held for Marge in Los Alamos and again on June 20 in Bakersfield, California, for friends and family in California. Her ashes were buried in the grave of my husband Phil.
“…the bumblebee flies because it does not know about the technicalities of aerodynamics.” I married again, and gave birth to my son Erich in 1984. Erich would have an adverse reaction to the pertussis shot shortly after birth. I was told by his neurologist from UCLA that my son would be a vegetable and would need to be institutionalized. I did not see what the CAT and, new for the time, MRI scans and neurologist saw, nor did I understand these scans, though I decided I needed to study math, too, my goal to eventually understand the electrical activity of the human brain, my intent to challenge the neurologist from UCLA who told me “a little knowledge is dangerous, Mrs. Brownlow.” The neurologist from UCLA later changed his mind, but at the time he chastised me for pursuing alternatives to his institutionalization for my son. After completing 60 semester hours in math, I never did master an understanding of the electrical activity of the brain, but enough is enough. This training became useful for me in other ways. As for my son, fortunately for me, at the time my son was diagnosed as a vegetable, my father was very wise and brilliant, he wrote nationally validated reading and math programs,proved IQ is dynamic and not static in the early 1970s, was an educator who connected me to many people with alternative approaches to learning, including Mary Meeker of the SOI Institute, a Godsend who also agreed with my father. My father told me that neurologists just give you information, you take the information for what it is, information, and move on from there. I did lots of things with my son when he was young, whether this mattered or not I do not know. Erich would go on to play football in high school, was not the best player, but he was noted for being the most determined player, a “killer” on the field, and with his team went on to get two CIF rings, he ran track, did boxing in college, always scored highest on state tests, was in honor’s classes in high school, but he was an A/B student, not really trying to be the best. He wrote stories when he was in elementary school. One of these stories was about me, a struggling math student trying to understand but never quite understanding, yet trying. What a gift from a son!! :) He argued so much with his religion teachers at his Catholic schools that his senior year, I paid the non-Catholic tuition so that he would just get thru his high school his last year and not be required to go to mass and take communion. Erich made clear to me that he loved the people but did not agree with the Catholic faith, even though he was baptised Catholic. To make a long story short, my son graduated this past December, 2007, from GA Tech with honors in discrete math. Like his wise grandfather before him, my son is left handed and gifted, Erich is gifted in both literature and in math. Erich is now enrolled in a master’s program in applied statistics. My father, his grandfather, would be proud of him because my father found statistics to be very hard but worthy of respect. My dad was a grad of NYU and an artist, photographer and journalist on the side, while he made a living for his family as an educator. He was also a WWII Disabled Vet who struggled his whole life but made very significant contributions in his lifetime. His goal was to make his children better than he was. I can’t say that I met up to my father’s expectations, but his grandchildren, my children Suzanne and Erich and my nieces and nephews, have made up for the lacking in my father’s hopes for his own children.
As for me, I am inspired by the novel The Alchemist and believe that I have been diverted from my own goals and dreams along the way for a purpose I will discover later. I am now on a path to re-discover what was my original dream? Time will tell. Thank you so much for your novel and this website.
My comment earlier was of course supposed to read “…the bumble bee DOES fly…” - a slip.
Paula Pear-Brownlow, thank you for sharing the touching story of your son Erich — amazing!
você tem a RESPONSABILIDADE de escrever só o que ajuda o leitor.
seja SÉRIO.
Desculpe…
Mas não vou responder sobre o tópico acima e sim sobre uma parte do Livro O Mago que acabei de ler…diante de toda sua história uma coisa que você fez quando criança ficou muito fixa em meus pensamentos…
Foi a história de ser o último a pular do trampolim…para mim ali você começou sua jormada, pois superou o MEDO DE TER MEDO…que ao meu ver é o pior dos Medos…
Ps.: Dúvido que seja vc que leia este blog…rs devem ser seus acessores, mas se forem repsassem se puder para o Paulo esta obeservação.
beijo
Andrea
The bumblebee flies because it believes it can. This reminds human beings that thoughts create experience. Regardless what people tell you is imminent, possible or impossible, you have the will and power to come to your own conclusions.
Dear Paula P B, thank you for your wonderful story. I share the same goal as your father did, and I am convinced that through love, subtle guidance and by allowing my child the freedom to grow, that I have succeeded in achieving just that. I have no expectations of her, but if I did have, she has have exceeded them all ;) A major part of (if not all) my destiny is to see to it that my child has all the necessary preparation she needs to make the most of her life in this world. I live for & would die for her if necessary, and this gives me such a warm comfortable feeling in my heart. I think it is important that we reach our goal with no regrets… not having missed a single opportunity to make a difference.
Love & humility to all parents, Paul
thank you Paulo Pear-Brownlow for the story. i was just working and need a break, and your last 3 sentences ring true for me too. and thank you Paulo very much for this website and for your interpretation of song. love.
Energize!