My parents had split up last year; my mom has moved on; however my dad had realized what he had lost and has been fighting ever since to get the love of his life back.
I couldn’t see my dad suffering, so I decided to send 1-2 stories from the book called Maktub and have him translate it into Hungarian. This challenge was my cover to keep him occupied on a daily bases and it was used as an exercise to improve his English skills as well.
He looked forward to receiving a new set of stories each day, but never wondered where they came from. One day I gave him a hint that the stories are in fact written by my mom’s favorite author. Immediately he came up with the idea of giving my mom the perfect gift for Christmas. He decided to convert the translated stories into a book since it has never been translated into Hungarian.
His work is done and I must add that he didn’t just translate these stories word by word; he put his heart into them and Coelho’s words mixed with his passion and literature skills which he had locked inside of him unused for so long and it became something truly spectacular. He became a warrior of the light. Our Maktub was born and I realized that my dad is my Alchemist who has fulfilled one of his Personal Legends.
Every child’s dream to see their parents happy together; however we didn’t get the results we were expecting. She liked the book but it didn’t warm her heart.
By now we both had to learn to live with the fact that she may never come back to him but as the saying goes when one door closes another one opens.
Please send your stories (250 words max.) for selection to paulocoelho.writer@gmail.com.
{ 33 comments… read them below or add one }
I´ve just read your book the alchemist. Its interesting to read my own thoughts in your words. unlike you im a puzzle with missing pieces, a mecanic without the right tools or the knowing how to use them :/
I realy enjoyed the book..
Thank you..
Hello Bernadette :))
I have not read the whole Maktub yet but i am sure that it is one of a kind that makes us realize something beyond, and since it is a book of Mr. Coelho, it is a good one.. I have been reading some of his books but never had the chance yet to cover Maktub. Every one of us has the right to be happy . Let us love ourselves, fear nothing and enoy life. That is the only way to live. There are no exceptions. Just go on living whatever circustances we come across coz it is what we make it. We allow things to happen and we have to stand by it. More power to you Bernadette
Ana
Bernadett, you’re an alchemist yourself, look it what a beautiful story you have written. My heart goes out to your father, I feel sad for him that he did not get the love of his life back! But human emotions are very complex and an enigma. One day you love someone and the next the feelings are gone. And there are a myriad of reasons why. But such reasons one does not talk about nor is it always that one even knows the reasons why. Maybe she never saw him for what he really is. E-motions. Enigma. Beautiful story, keep on writing you alchemist.
love.
Thank you for the kind and warm words Carolena, it means a lot to me coming from you as I admire your work. Yes, love is very complex, and sometimes we don’t understand it, lot of emotions are involved in the process.
Love,
Bernadett
this is wonderful :-)
a broken heart slowly healed with the power of creation
You’re the best daughter a dad could have :-)
Thank you Josephine :)
I just wanted to express my graditude towards Mr Coelho. Thank you for the books you have written!!! In every book of yours there is a great message that helps us understand the world better.
Thank you especially for Maktub that gave hope to my dad when had lost so much. Your stories gave him a reason to go on when living seemed unreasonable and the master’s words encouraged him to discover himself once again.
Also, thank you for Zahir because it helped him understand what went wrong in his relationship. And thank you for the Alchemist which encouraged us both to go in a search and fight for our dreams and fulfill our Personal Legend.
Love,
Bernadett
Nice story. I really like the description of how you handed sections of Maktub to your father to translate. That whole part said so much and was visual.
Thank you Neela! :)
You can read Maktub in English on Coelho’s website. Let me know if you need any help finding it!
Love,
Bernadett
Thank you Detti !
I am very proud of you ! This story is a true tale. I know it because I am the lead of this story.
Your only one dad Tibi :) :)
You are the best dad!!!! I love you so much!!!! :))))))))))))))
Hi neighbour,
Thank you for the kind words, take care of your family :)
Love,
Bernadett
Beautifully said, Bernadett Doka. We all would prefer a .. happy ending. Unfortunately life is not a fairy tale. Some cannot continue in a relationship when the bonds are broken. Some stay for the sake of the children.. Some are dead alive but continue do their duties and the .. movements pretending that everything is ..normal. Only some deadly, Sunday afternoons reveal reality.. The broken wings and forgotten dreams.
LOVE,
Thelma.
Thank you Thelma! Yes you’re right. Life isn’t a fairy tale, so we just have to make the most out of it and follow our dreams:)
Love,
Bernadett
To Detti: well done. It seems like many of us become Alchemists when it comes to love. Time is luck and it’s a very important part of love too. Sometimes we aren’t as lucky as we hope. What makes us strong is that we keep trying. I try every day.
To everyone else: the story is true. I know the author of this letter personally.
Thank you :) The motor of this world is clearly love, and some of us are Alchemists.
Beautiful lines Bernadette. Perhaps you and your dad don’t get the reaction from your mom as you expected, right away. Hopefully the Hungarian Maktub will be a seed, slowly growing to a connection between the three of you, that nobody else can understand or disturb, in your hearts.
Thank you Heart, that’s a beautiful methaphore and it’s true.
Love,
Bernadett
Dear Paul, I see that I find it hard to read you. For me, the gift of my child was given by God, and when I chose to be in relation with that man and had my children, I realized that I had chosen that man not by love but by insecurity. I dealt a long time with culpability of breaking a family, and one day a friend asked me: Johanne, you paint your apartment with the colour you have chosen at the moment. You feel not good with that color. You change the furnitures from one place to another, buy a plant, a mirror, candles, new furnitures … and you realize that that color was not the one, that you made an error. You can have made an error in choosing your partner Johanne. Please, be kind to yourself”. And that was a great deliverance for me … because I deeply now that if I would have stayed and tried to love, and love, I would not be where I am today, in love with myself and more present to my kids”. With affection, Jojo
Nice one. At times, I don’t understand life and agree too. I believe, too much, in poetic justice. He deserves her. May be, he deserves more than her. perhaps that’s written too.
Thank you Harrkar,
Perhaps it is written, just like it is in the Maktub. I believe that as long as you stay true to yourself and follow your path, you will get the ending you deserve and find happiness.
Love,
Bernadett
Hmmm…I found the story sad. I wished for a happy ending in all respects. I so wanted your mother to say yes, another chance.
Yes I wanted a happy ending for my family too :) We just have to wait and see where life will takes us.
A separation is always suffering, for I suffered even if I knew that it had to be. Seeing my kids separated from their father, the suffering of the father, but also connected to the life that was coming back inside me. Touching the love between the daughter and the father, as of my Sarah with her father. What makes me sad though is that he still stay in the victims’ position and accuses me of being the source of his problems today and not wanting to participate in helping with the kids … for I decided to go and must assume. I assume! Hope that the father will now see himself in the writings and understand that he wrote that for him! You know, I always say, live the present moment, not knowing what tomorrow will bring, maybe reconciliation, maybe not … but one thing for sure, living the present moment with responsibility for one self, in all the domains, will certainly bring a tomorrow more brillant … Love, Jojo.
I hope the father of your child(ren) will realize what he is missing out on and that he will be there for them. Thank you for your kidness :)
Love,
Bernadett
Both charming and dismay – for there must have been great hope in your father’s efforts…. fighting for his life’s love.
What a project for you to give him to undertake… I think it great.
Hopes to you and your family in the future yet.
Best wishes.
Thank you Cats:) Yes it was a big project, but he made it :)
Beautiful tale of love and passion! I realize that from a personal perspective it may not seem like a very “happy” ending, but somehow it seems fitting, and I think that you have a very wise perspective on it, Bernadette: “when one door closes another one opens.”
I think that love relationships are a little like flowers: first they come to bud, then they open into bloom, and eventually, like all things under the sun, they must come to their end. Somehow, in our society, we have developed the idea that this ending is meant to correspond with the ending of our lives – a love is meant to last (that flower is meant to stay in full bloom) until the day we die. For some of us it is like this. For some of us, love is like a plant with a single stalk that puts forth a single bloom, and that bloom lasts for a very long time – all our lives. But for others, love takes the form of something more like a rosebush. There is a bud and then a bloom, and that bloom is splendid in its perfection, but eventually even that perfect bloom fades and dies, only to be replaced by another. But, just because one flower dies and another takes its place, does not mean that the first was any less perfect or any less beautiful. Nor does the fact that it died mean that it was a “failure” – it lasted precisely as long as it was supposed to last.
Today it is common to know of people who have been married and divorced several times. (I’ve been married and divorced twice.) The tendency seems to be to look at these events as “failures” in our lives. Just a few days ago at a party, I heard someone make a comment about a woman who was standing across the room: “Oh, what would she know about love? She’s been divorced four times! This is her fifth husband.” I personally think that this attitude – this tendency to necessarily see these loves as incidents of “failure” is wrong and often quite detrimental to our growth. Just because a rose comes to bloom and then dies, to be replaced by another, we do not say “Oh what a failure that flower was!” We don’t say “Oh, what could that rosebush possibly know about making flowers? It keeps trying and failing over and over!” We don’t even see the blooms as necessarily “replacing” one another; we just take them as they come and appreciate each as an individual, perfect for the time that it lasts.
I realize this is a rather queer view of love, and probably not a very popular one. We all want to find that ONE person who is meant for us – we want to “get it right.” We want to marry and stay together for the rest of our lives. But, for some of us, I’m not sure how realistic this expectation is. In fact, I’m not even sure that it is wholly natural for some of us. It is like asking a rosebush to act like some other sort of flower – to produce a single bloom and sustain that same one bloom until the bush itself dies. This is the way of some flowering plants, but not all.
So, Bernadette, what I’m saying is that I don’t think your father, or either of your parents, necessarily failed. Just because their relationship did not last for the whole of their lives does not mean that it was not a thing of beauty and splendor while it lasted. And, similarly, their love and their relationship can be appreciated in this way – the way that we remember and even admire a flower long after it has faded and ceased to be.
Thank you for sharing your story with us!
With Much Love,
Savita
Wow beautiful metaphore, thank you for your comment. I wish my mom could see it that way too :)
Love,
Bernadett
Nice story. Important was trying, and at least you and your father have a very close relation( if the story is real). Thank you
Love
Alexandra
Thank you Alexandra, yes we have a great relationship and the story is true :)
Love,
Bernadett
Thank you dear Annie … Jojo
Yes, hope he reconnects to his Self and act upon … Thank you for your word, Jojo
{ 1 trackback }