What is the appeal of traveling and what do you receive from traveling? Are they reflected to your work? Please let us know what does traveling means to you.
I’m a pilgrim writer and that inevitably appears in the way my characters deals with space. I’m in constant movement and very often I find that my characters need to equally find themselves in a journey. I believe that we are constantly experiencing transformation and that’s why we need to let life guide us. That’s what the main character in The Witch of Portobello, Athena, for instance, does: she runs the world in order to discover herself.
The physical journey mimics the psychological one in the sense that it’s only through this experience that she is able to grasp the deeper meaning of her life, the reason for her wanderings.
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I hate tourism, I hate trips in the bus from one country to another and hearing: look at the left, look at the right…Is it traveling? Je sais pas. That is poor parody to what is called traveling for the people who has not enough money (but anyway there many possibilities to find chip way to get acquainted with others cultures?) or just without big heart opened to the world.
Quand tu as amis par tout le monde, quand tu changes la langue, and don't think what language are you using (même avec des fautes – nois sommes pas ideals:)…When you travel you have to be as a citizen of each country, each village…you should try to feel what does it mean to be Brazilian..or French or African.. how do they feel every day. And then when you stop and you understand that you are extremely rich (in the way that never can be crushed even if it economical crisis)…parce que tu t'es imprégné de tous trésors, tout l'or du Monde…grâce à quoi? grâce à Traveling.
Languages of the Universe, “way to go.”
Love x
Pilgrim – Eric Clapton
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1XRKE-Mtub0
Elena resumes it beautifully.The true meaning of travelling.
“When you have friends all around the world, when you change the language,”
Quand tu as des amis par tout le monde, quand tu changes la langue and don’t think what language you are using (even if there are mistakes…we are not perfect..) When you travel as a citizen of each country, each village you should try to feel what does it mean to be Brazilian..or French or African…How do they feel every day. And then when you stop and think how you have acquired so much wealth – in the way that never can be crushed even if it economical crisis) …because you have immersed yourself with all the treasures, all the gold in the world….because of what?….because of traveling.”
“Quand tu as des amis par tout le monde, quand tu changes la langue et ne pense pas a quelle langue tu utilises – meme si il y a des fautes ….personne n’est parfait..) Lorsque tu voyages en tant que citoyen de chaque pays,chaque village, essaye de penser comme un bresilien…ou un francais…ou un africain.Mets toi dans leur peau. Tu te rendras compte alors que tu as accumule tant de richesses….d’une telle facon que meme une crise economique ne peut broyer….parceque tu t’es impregne de tous les tresors…tout l’or du monde…Grace a quoi? ..grace aux voyages.”
Then you can call yourself a true citizen of the world.
Tu peux alors t’appeler un vrai citoyen du monde.
Merci Elena, thank you Elena. You made my day.
Love
J’ai besoin de prendre un bol d’air. De retourner vers mes racines. et voir ou cela va me mener.De me plonger dans l’atmosphere a nouveau.
C’est un appel tellement fort qui vient de l’interieur. Quelque chose me dit qu’il faut que je retourne “chez moi”.
Is not the appeal of knowing other languages linked with that too?
Otherwise, what is the purpose of it?
Love
Dear Elena, I do so agree with your distaste for “tourism.” I am currently on a trip with my daughter, for two weeks in London. It is her first trip abroad, and our first long trip together. As a result, I find myself struggling – engaged in this internal battle between the way I’ve always travelled, when I travelled alone, and this thing called “tourism,” the way we are “supposed to” approach travel abroad.
When I travel alone, as I always did before my daughter was born, I simply wander about, though having perhaps one or two definitive destinations in mind, guided otherwise almost exclusively by intuition. For example, I remember once, the last time I was in London, starting out in Covent Garden in the morning and ending up in Richmond by evening, a journey made all on foot, simply by wandering. I would just head off in a general direction and let my internal compass be my guide. In this way, I always felt at ease, assured that I would see precisely what I needed to see – what God and the powers that be intended me to see.
Now, the past few days in London have been somethng wholly different. Because my young daughter is with me, and because I have felt pressured to insure 1) that she is sufficiently “entertained,” 2) misses nothing of “importance,” and 3) has a “memorable” trip, I have found myself scurrying about, like a rat in a maze, going this way and that, running here and running there, trying to be, in essence, a “proper tourist.” I am very bad at this. First, I feel stressed. Secondly, going out to face the day with a wholly pre-planned itinerary bores me to death. It takes all the surprise out of travel, out of life itself.
Yesterday, and the day before (because the ticket lasts 48 houurs), we found ourselves on one of those abysmal tour buses, watching one designated site after another pass before our eyes like some collosal montage of monuments whizzing by at light-speed, leaving nothing in its path but a trail of camera clicks and postcard images. At one point I asked my daughter, “So what do you think?” “It’s boring,” she said. My sentiments precisely!
So, today we rest. Tomorrow we start our trip over again. This time I drop the attempt at being a “good little tourist” and go back to my original methods of travel. Each day we will pick a single destination – something that interests one or both of us for some very personal reason, which usually for me is not something on the “must see” list, but often something much more obscure and out-of-the-way. (I almost always prefer the less travelled paths.) So, we’ll head out in the general direction of this one sight, or sometimes just head out to explore a general area of the city, with nothing in particular in mind, just a heart ripe for discovery. And along the way there will be much unplanned and un-mapped wandering about, this way and that, sometimes even round and round. At the end of the day, as the sun begins to set, then we’ll pull out the map and find ourselves, marking the route we need to take to get back home.
Sometimes I think we just have to trust in our intuition to lead us to the places we need to see and the events we need to experience. Too often “touristic” travel only causes the ego to swell, in relation to the size of one’s photo library, yet does nothing to foster one’s spiritual growth. In the end there is nothing to show for the journey but this series of photos, taken before well-known monuments, in which one looks very much like everyone else who has ever stood on that exact same spot. A true journey, a journey of the soul, is something else entirely: It requires risk. It requires trust in something larger than oneself, something less well defined than man-made maps. It requires that one set out not knowing the ultimate destination yet believing in the internal process marked by the external journey.
Much love to all!
Savita Vega
It puts the seeker in the present moment. The journey starts within and transitions to physical steps. The physical journey will tell a story about your self and depending of ones awareness it will lead to conclusions and therfore to changes and personal growth.
What cook doesn’t at least taste his dishes?
Paulo – I simply love you! Please hug yourself for me! I admire the grasp you have on reality and the way you embrace it with grace and humility! You are a wonderful teacher. Thank you for being self-less and sharing constantly with the world.
Dear Paulo Coelho,
its my first time to vizit your site.I have to say that im big fun of yours i readed almost all of your books.Im sorry about mistakes in writenning.Now i read The witch of Portobello,and that inspirate me to write you.
About the questin my staf is:
traveling is necesaerily in every life,that might be in a short of long distance never mind,but i am sure that every time in every trip we get new expirience, and that expirience afect on us.I like to travel a lot in a different countries but i cant because i dont have viza.(i am from Macedonia) . But that didn t stop me to travel in our near places on Balcan without viza.My point is that traveling help me to discover new me every time.fullfill with new things and stuff.In the past i was thinking that i cat do that becouse i dont have enought money but now i know that money its not the problem for travelling the problem is do you prepared for travell.after that i fell good vibration and i am prepared for new
work days
°° –> ^^ , ^^ ——-> °°
love
I hate tourism, I hate trips in the bus from one country to another and hearing: look at the left, look at the right…Is it traveling? Je sais pas. That is poor parody to what is called traveling for the people who has not enough money (but anyway there many possibilities to find chip way to get acquainted with others cultures?) or just without big heart opened to the world.
Quand tu as amis par tout le monde, quand tu changes la langue, and don’t think what language are you using (même avec des fautes – nois sommes pas ideals:)…When you travel you have to be as a citizen of each country, each village…you should try to feel what does it mean to be Brazilian..or French or African.. how do they feel every day. And then when you stop and you understand that you are extremely rich (in the way that never can be crushed even if it economical crisis)…parce que tu t’es imprégné de tous trésors, tout l’or du Monde…grâce à quoi? grâce à Traveling.
http://www.thilikos.info/kavafis/city.pdf
The City. By Constantinos Kavafis.
Another aspect of the journey.
LOVE,
THELMA
Dear Paulo Coelho,
I admire your works and your wisdom; i grew up with your books and acquired a lot of the values described there. Thank you so much for shaping my personality.
I have a question, though I’m not quite sure whether this is the right place to post it: When we fight the Good fight and are experience failures or come across difficulties most of the time, how do we know when there is a challenge for us on the road or when it is just an omen, a sign that we should give up the battle?
Feel free to delete the question if it’s not in the right place.
Be blessed,
MM
In many religious orders, after a priest or nun has operated for ten years, they get a sabbatical year, in which to be inactive or to so to speak load their batteries. Some attend a one year ‘course’ in a spiritual class of some sort, to try to find out what goes on inside themselves. A joke has been, such classes often has resulted in the priest or nun to leave their vacation, as it can be very painful to make inner journeys. Therefore others have recommend to make a one year visit to a new country,to do an external journey. This experience is believed to be much more helpful to personal development. We probably need both, and the idea of a sabbatical for everybody is great.
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