Paulo Coelho
At the end of the forty days of deluge, Noah came out of the ark. He was filled with hope, but all he found outside was death and destruction.
Noah protested:
“Almighty God, if You knew the future, why did You create man? Just for the pleasure of punishing him?”
A triple perfume rose up into the sky: incense, the perfume of Noah’s tears, and the aroma of his actions. Then God replied:
“The prayers of a just man are always heard. I will tell you why I did this: so that you will understand your work. You and your descendents will always be rebuilding a world which came from nothing – and in this way we share the work and the consequences. Now we are all responsible.”
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Noah I share your tears and the aroma of your actions. May we all learn the lessons that work is never finished.
Mankind looses site of this key point, and asks the question as Noah did, “Why create man if just to punish him?”. Through our everyday struggles mankind falls into the societal machine, and then simply asks this question of why? Why do we suffer? Why do we have such great hopes and aspirations of changing this world yet we suffer? Noah was filled with hope, but then was faced with a world outside of death and destruction. This world of death and destruction is necessary in order to realize the hope one has inside.
It is my hope that every person in this world has the hope; the inner desire to change this world for the better, although I have found this is not true. Not everyone shares the same dream of making this world a better place for all to live in. But it is because of this realization that I can realize those who do. How can one know the good without the bad? One cannot. One cannot see hope or feel hope, without feeling death or destruction.
God presents his reasonings, as seen above, for this death and destruction. He states man is only, “ rebuilding a world which came from nothing”. We must all share the work and the consequences and we must all be responsible. How could we citizens of this world appreciate and be thankful for the time to live upon it if we had no comprehension of how it was built. How it came from nothing and is what it is today. We all must take responsibility for our actions in building and damaging the world. Now this concept is apparent with global warming. Mankind has all realized the damage we have placed upon this plant Earth, and we realize the work it is going to take to rebuild it. Generations preceding this youth generation took for granted the Ozone layer, and now my generation is faced with skin cancer. It will be my generation that will rebuild the destruction, but only then will we have the ability to have hope for generations to come. If we can accomplish this great task of saving the world, then we can have hope in our children. We are all responsible; therefore it gives us all the responsibility to take a part in fixing the problems of today.
God shows Noah, one must know destruction and death to realize hope, and we all have the responsibility for the place we live today. I want to change this world and better it for all those around me. That is what I want to die knowing I did. I cannot achieve this until I myself suffer, until I myself feel unhappiness, until I myself feel death. I must feel all these things before I can feel hope, happiness, and life; before I can be thankful for all those things and realize I too have responsibility in this place I call home.
Thank you friends for the wonderful comments. I have learnt not to take anything for granted, to cherish and give thanks for each moment.
Jessica, can I add one more song to your song list – Enya’s Only Time, it’s a beautiful song, that I first heard while seeing the movie Sweet November.
Love and peace to all.
Some nice songs that I find comfort in when I need strenght :-)
Imagine (John Lennon) – http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jEOkxRLzBf0
May it be (Enya)- http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rvFjtPo0E-s
Raise me up (Josh Groban) –
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0OOhd6R2EiY
Love Jessica
Well there’s no mistaking the value of being presented with a clean sheet… a chance to start anew… however the older we become, the harder it is to gather the energy and enthusiasm to begin once again… but that’s just it… the warrior must fight to be able to continue on his/her path…
I treasure my family above all… nothing… absolutely nothing could ever replace them… it is truly up to me to believe that God means well with me… with us…
Love, Paul
A allusion error in the previous comment (I´m a little tired yet).
I correct it ;-)
So I´m very happy for people like Paulo Coelho, Tolle Eckhart, Deepak Chopra, Dalai Lama and all the other people who try to make a difference, that they have the courage and wisdome to
SHOW US HOW WE CAN open our heart and take responsability
for our actions.
Love again, Jessica
Luce …
I think you have missunderstand me.
I have not lost courage … I am sad … that is not the same..
Can´t I feel sad for everyting we have done wrong?
How can we learn if we don´t reflect and being sad for the mistake we have done to the Earth and other people?
But we should learn from the mistakes we have done and try to do the best we can now and in the future.
I am sad that mankind polluted the Earth, and cut down rainforest, and kill the animals for fun for example.
But I agree with you that every single one of us should do the best we can to help each other and our Earth.
So I´m very happy for people like Paulo Coelho, Tolle Eckhart, Deepak Chopra, Dalai Lama and all the other people who try to make a difference, that they have the courage and wisdome to open our heart and take responsability for our actions.
And we all can do that .. make a difference :-)
Love and light forver
Jessica
Yes indeed we are all responsible for the care -and conservation of our beautiful planet -we are one and its a shame that it always takes though something like a catastrophy to pull or bring people togeather -we should all be like this 24/7 in helping our brothers and sisters .Blessings Tania
Deus constroe, o Homem destroe…
As vezes acho que a Dialética é uma coisa só, outrora penso que a Metafísica é uma eterna refazenda…
Enquanto, vamos tocando em frente:
“Ando devagar porque já tive pressa
Levo esse sorriso porque já chorei demais
Hoje me sinto mais forte, mais feliz quem sabe,
Só levo a certeza de que muito pouco eu sei,
Nada sei.
Conhecer as manhas e as manhãs,
O sabor das massas e das maçãs,
É preciso amor pra poder pulsar,
É preciso paz pra poder sorrir,
É preciso chuva para florir…
Penso que cumprir a vida seja simplesmente
Compreender a marcha e ir tocando em frente,
Como um velho boiadeiro levando a boiada
Eu vou tocando os dias pela longa estrada eu vou.
Estrada eu sou…”(Almir Sater e Renato Teixeira)
I like this story. I think I understand it.
Dear Savita,
I agree with you. God, the universe, our collective souls or whatever else name one might want to use creates this catastrophes to incite growth.
Yesterday Paulo provided an excerpt of his conversations with his master, which was explaining loss: Losses create room for potential growth and according to the master, one out of ten times people become aware of their new possibilities and grow, by changing their lives.
The same principle holds true for these catastrophes – even for large scale desasters directly caused by mankind like genocide. Even if I believe in this and even if I consider it as a creation of new possibilities for growth, I as a human being at the same time feel deep empathetic sadness and and sympathies for anyone being struck by such an event.
At this point, however, “the wheel is come full circle”, back to responsibility, the importance of which god demonstrated Noah the way Paulo quoted it. I strongly believe it is a collective lack of responsibility that leads to catastrophes. Or the other way round: The more responsibility among mankind the less catastrophes will be necessary for further growth.
I’d highly appreciate to find out how the other readers of Paulo’s blog think about this issue.
Love
Günther
Yes we are all responsible even for Ike and towns like Bridge City, New Orleans….
Yes, we shuld share consequences too !
I do not think how world looks today, Jessica, I think and do my best how it should look like today, tomorrow and days to come.
Every single person is important, every single move is important even little one, even one word !
I do not loose courrage because my words and actions are not so effiscient as Paulo’s !
I just thank God that there are such persons and do my little best I could.
Luce
Incidentally, Hurricane Ike – that was forty days ago!
Savita
Thank you for your post, Paulo Coelho. It is as relevant today as it might have been in Noah’s era.
As I look out my window this morning – I still have a window, still have a roof over my head – the trees in my yard are still standing, with the exception of a few that were snapped off, like match sticks, high up. Over the past month, since Hurricane Ike, which hit this area directly, I have been driving around with a knot in my throat which, from time to time, becomes a declaration that must be let out: “Oh, Dear God,” I say, “How lucky we are!” Often I drive by a house from which the roof is missing, or sometimes just a pile a rubble that used to be a house, and I turn back to my daughter who is sitting in the back seat and I say, “Let us say ‘Thank You’ to God. Do you know how lucky we are?” And thus we pass by houses, no longer habitable, that used to be homes, saying prayers under our breath or sometimes, out loud, in unison.
There is one town, near here, Bridge City, which simply isn’t there any more. Of the several thousand homes that comprised this small city, only a handful were spared. And it’s all so “random” – never the places you would expect to be destroyed. Buildings that appeared indestructible simply aren’t there anymore. And then there are homes left standing – shacks really – that you wouldn’t have thought would withstand the slightest puff of wind. And especially when I see poor people’s homes badly hit, I think, “My God! My God! How can this be?!”
There is this one family who lives right on the side of a highway, on a small plot of land. They’ve been working for over a year now to build a descent house that they could call their own. I’ve been watching them as I pass by, as their house stands on the route I must take to arrive at the larger town in our area. For months, they brought in little loads of wood – I suppose, as much as they could afford at a time. Slowly, without an architect or carpenters, working themselves, by hand, they erected a wooden frame. Then, just as slowly, over a period of many more months, they roofed it and closed it in. For a long while I could tell they had no electricity – I don’t know how they ever cut the boards, unless they cut them too by hand or brought them in already cut – as I would only see a lamp-light through the window. Then one evening, late, I passed by on my way home and I saw a porch light on, shining like a beacon, announcing “home.” The sight of it made my heart soar for these people who obviously had worked so hard and so long just to attain so little. Finally, it seemed, against all odds, they had prevailed – they had, at last, a home of their own, as modest as it was.
Less than a week later, Hurricane Ike hit, full force. Now, for the past month, I have seen these people out there again, picking up the pieces of what’s left, trying to put it all back together. This time, though, I noticed something different – a few “official looking” vehicles parked in their yard, some extra cars and trucks, and one van, off and on, that was evidently a church van of some sort. This time, they had help! So, did God destroy the house that these people had build, just so that the rest of us would have an opportunity to help them rebuild it? Perhaps. I don’t have that answer.
But there is one thing that I do know, after having been through Ike and several other major storms, such as both Katrina and Rita: there is nothing that so transcends differences and brings a community together like a major catastrophe of this sort.
When these things happen, I always think too of the people who live in places like Cuba and Haiti, who had very little to begin with, few resources with which to rebuild, and who are hit over and over again. I wonder if, as a result, they are closer as a community than we are? Is such destruction Gods way of shifting our focus off of the material excesses of life and back to what is most important – our relationship with other human beings? When the whole physical world around you gets inundated with water and ripped apart by wind again and again, where do you place your faith? I think it must be that you place your faith more in God and other human beings, rather than in material possessions, these transient tokens of human existence.
Much Love,
Savita Vega
forgot the lyrics …
———————–
“Not Like The Other Girls”
No more blame I am destined to keep you sane
Gotta rescue the flame
Gotta rescue the flame in your heart
No more blood, I will be there for you my love
I will stand by your side
The world has forsaken my girl
I should have seen it would be this way
I should have known from the start what she’s up to
When you have loved and you’ve lost someone
You know what it feels like to lose
She’s fading away
Away from this world
Drifting like a feather
She’s not like the other girls
She lives in the clouds
She talks to the birds
Hopeless little one
She’s not like the other girls I know
No more shame, she has felt too much pain, in her life
In her mind she’s repeating the words
All the love you put out will return to you
————————
I can only agree …
All the love we put out will return :-)
And so is our actions … what goes around, comes around.
Love Jessica
It´s true we have responsabillity to do our best to care for our Earth so we and the coming generations still can live on this planet.
But it makes me sad how the world looks today :-(
We have to be the change we want to happen.
I can only hope it´s not to late yet …
I have to remain positive to try to be a part of the change.
A real good song that fits into this issue:
Not like the other girls -
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AlHeotNW7Yg
Love Jessica
‘Deluge’ as in a lot of rain, meaning flooding, to loose everything…and start over again. If we can only believe in the precious strength inside each and every one of us, and our two hand that can perform miracles.
We must learn to use our Freedom with responsibility, to ourselves, our family, our country and our Planet. Not only our actions have to be controled but our thoughts too. We are ONE with the Universe.
LOVE,
THELMA