Of course things don’t always happen they way we wish they would. There are moments in which we feel we are seeking something that is not meant for us, knocking on doors that don’t open, waiting for miracles that don’t manifest themselves.
Fortunately that is the way things are – if everything went the way we wanted, soon we would no longer have anything to write about, nothing to guide our daily thoughts. This script serves our dreams as nourishment, but to our battles as energy. And as it always happens with the warriors that spend all their energy in the Good Fight, there are moments in which it is best to relax and believe that the Universe is still working for us secretly, even if we cannot comprehend it.
And so, let us allow the Soul of the World to fulfill its mission, and if we can’t help, the best way to collaborate is to pay attention to the simple things in life; the sunset, the people in the street, the reading of a book.
However, in many cases, time continues passing and nothing exceptional happens. But the true warrior of light believes. Just like children believe.
Because they believe in miracles, the miracles begin to happen.
Because they are certain that their thoughts can change their lives, their lives begin to change.
Because they are certain they will find love, this love appears.
Sometimes they are disappointed. Sometimes they feel hurt.
Then they hear the comments, “you are so naïve!”
But the warrior knows it is worth the price. To each defeat, there are two conquests in his favor.
In an interesting and diminutive book called “The Breviary of Medieval Knights,” there are some passages that have to be remembered in these moments of waiting:
“The Path’s spiritual energy uses justice and patience to prepare your spirit.”
“This is the Knight’s Path. An easy and hard path at the same time, as it urges us to let aside useless things and relative friendships. That is why, at the beginning, we hesitate so much to follow it.”
“This is a Knight’s first teaching: you will erase everything you wrote up to now on your life’s notebook: turmoil, insecurities, lies. And in place of all that, you will write the word courage. Beginning the journey with this word and going on with faith in God, you will arrive where you need to arrive.”
Even so, sometimes we keep on waiting – with patience, resignation, courage – and still, things around us don’t move. But since this is the path we chose, it seems impossible that life’s blessings are not working in our favor. It provokes, therefore, a deep reflection about what we call “results:” our destiny is manifesting itself in a way we are not able to fully comprehend . Jorge Luís Borges wrote a masterly short story about this issue.
He describes the birth of a tiger that spends great part of its life in the African wildness but ends up being captured and taken to a zoo in Italy. From then on, the animal thinks his life has lost sense and there is nothing left to do but wait for the day he dies.
One fine day, poet Dante Alighieri passes by this zoo, looks at the tiger, and the animal inspires a verse – in the midst of thousands of verses – of “The Divine Comedy.”
“The entire battle for survival that tiger went through was only so that it could be at the zoo on that morning and inspire an immortal verse,” says Borges.
Just like this tiger, we all have a reason – a very important reason – to be here, at this moment, this morning.
So relax. And pay attention.
I wish you as many miracles as possible and humbleness for myself
I got a miracle once.. I fell in love.. And it gave me a sense of joy.. It gave inspiration.. Now it has gone, life has taken my love apart.. And I decided to keep waiting on it..Now i feel no sense.. I feel lost, even though I have been strong, and face the true, it has been so damn hard.. feels like life hasnt had mercy on me..
What I am trying to figurate out is.. the beauty of this waiting, the joy of this pain, I haven´t found it.. I am just falling sleep…
Through all what we go through, we fight for our dreams and our hopes. we face hard situations and regections. we get heartbroken. and all this happen so you become the one you are today. but doesnt worth fighting and trying when you end up without faith. faith keeps us living. it keeps our innocence inside us. if we lost our innocence, we will stop believing in miracles, we will stop believing in falling in love again.
through all things we go through, the true battle is about not losing our faith and innocence.
Lots of love, Amy
I needed to hear that.
I had been battling with myself lately about and asking myself questions about my purpose here on Earth and I just keep on forgetting that all I have to do is to believe! Before, I thought miracles had to be majestically grand. My problem was a matter of perspective. Now, I see everyday miracles and I’m thankful I am witnessing them.
Thank you, as always.
thanx *
Thank you so much . I really need this advice . Thank you also for all your words , they are a source of comfort, inspiration and help in my life . God bless you .
As for the tiger and the evident concern for it’s well-being, I think we have to be a bit forgiving of Borges, and Paulo. Sometimes when you’re writing and trying to make a point, metaphors don’t quite work out the way you intended them to. However, this break-down of the metaphor does not nullify the point as a whole. It’s just an unfortunate use of metaphor – that’s all. I really rather doubt that Paulo condones the abuse of animals in any form.
With Love,
Savita
I wonder if the tiger in its tiger-heaven is gratefull for being made immortal by Alighieri?… (instead staying free and having tiger-cubs in the jungle)
My best idea of everyones uniqeness and necessity use to be thinking about the building of a cathedral. A project that sometimes lasted for 3-4 generations. The plans, the finances, the cutting of stones, the transportations, the building itself, the windows, furniture, statues – all the details – touched by so many invisible hands without names – no wellknown Alighieris – except for some artists and bishops, but still the result is standing there today and we walk between the pillars echoing of the ancient forests that ones covered Europe.
I like to think of all those hands building the cathedral.
Paulo,
I am a huge fan of your writings and will continue cycling through your books and re-reading them. In this particular blog, Im not enjoying the fact that the tiger has inspired an immortal verse for someone else. If the tiger is unhappy and thinks it will die in there, how can it be good for the tiger that someone else was inspired by him. He probably doesn’t know that hes inspired someone else and is still left to die by himself in his cage?? Maybe Im missing something, I just wish the tiger had inspired something in himself.
April
I am on hold, relaxing, but at times we really do need these type of periods. I call it time for myself. Although sometimes it’s hard to see, that it’s time for Yourself… if nothing seems not to be moving or going “our way”.
But maybe it has something to teach us. Patience.
Love,
L.
Dear Paulo,
I have read “Things as they are” many times and had even sent it to some friends for inspiration.
It is a good reminder that we need to be patients, that everything happens for a reason and there is not such a thing of being at the wrong place at the wrong time.
Thank you for the reminder.
Life if about the journey and not its final destination
Love
Gabi
This came forwarded to me from a friend.. After months of stagnation, waiting, searching, wondering the doors finally opened. What I read here was truly Godsend. Now I need to take the “walk”, think about my life and keep on walking.. thank you..
Great writing. I love it.
“To love is to consciously look for what we have been missing and find back unconsciously what we have known already”
Christiane Olivier
This makes a great deal of sense to me, particularly at this moment in time. Nothing moves. I push, I insist… Still nothing moves. So I sit, I wait… still nothing moves, or at least it appears not to move.
Yesterday I was out and about, running errands, when I found myself in a check-out line. The man at the register forgot to remove my change when the drawer was open, so he had to call for assistance. We waited…and we waited, for what seemed like an eternity. People behind me in line grew restless and began to grumble. Meanwhile, the cashier and my daughter engaged in a conversation about some toy that she had recently purchased on lay-away, paying a little at a time from her allowance, until she paid it off. She was very excited, and more than a little proud of herself for having done this. It was then that the cashier turned to me and said, with a huge smile on his face: GOOD THINGS COME TO THOSE WHO WAIT. He was, of course, referring to the toy and my daughter’s patience in attaining it. However, as he spoke, I had the feeling that the heavens had just opened up and that a voice from above was speaking directly to me about my life, and more specifically about this current period of apparent stasis from which I cannot seem to escape, no matter how hard I try. Just in that moment, the manager arrived, the cashier was able to open the drawer, and we were able to move on out the door, freeing up the line.
Just this morning I receive a brief message from a friend who is currently making a grand tour of the US by automobile. I realize immediately that she is expecting me to be who-knows-where by now. The plan we agreed on months ago is that somehow, somewhere, even if in the middle of nowhere, we will make it a point to meet up before summer’s end.
Her message reads: “Where are you?”
I reply: “I’m not sure. I think they call this place Purgatory.”
So then I google images “Purgatory” and send her this pic – http://www.vintage-views.com/DORE/Purgatory/images/0901K4-73_jpg.jpg – because I feel that it so perfectly encapsulates the feeling of this place where I am at the moment, which has nothing to do with my physical location on any map. It has to do with the fact that everything in my life seems to have come to a screeching halt, and nothing that I have tried seems to make any difference. So, I sit, and I wait, because I know from experience that when things like this happen, it is usually because the Universe has some plan for me that I can’t quite grasp just yet. There will be a time for movement, but that time is not yet. Things are happening. Much is happening – I know this – but it is below the surface, where I cannot see it. From my perspective it appears as though nothing is moving at all.
Rather than causing me agitation and worry, however, the whole situation fills me with great excitement and a sense of immense anticipation. I feel like some great door is about to swing open, or, as Paulo says, some miracle about to happen. I don’t yet know what this is all about, but I know that there is some reason (beyond my knowing) for my whole life suddenly being frozen, even if that reason is something so simple as that I, like the tiger, will be in the right place at the right moment to inspire some single immortal stanza of poetry.
Thank you, Paulo, for reminding me to remain patient, and above all to trust.
Sincerely,
Savita
Bless you, Paulo, for your shared wisdom! I also see myself as a ‘warrior of light’, creating a preferred reality on Terra and enjoying the adventure of life. Meeting you is still in my destiny… Love, Cordula
(translater of ‘The Alchemist’ from Portuguese into German)
Thank you Mr. Coelho, today this is a very meaningful message to me. Just what I needed to hear. I will put my worries aside and sleep peacefully this night.
good night to all you here,
x
I liked this reading very much. I wrote some comments on my blog about your wonderful writings and I translated into Spanish the extract you quoted from “The Breviary of Medieval Knights” book about a Knight´s first teaching.. Thanks for this gift! Xiomara
hello paulo,
it is a nice story. having also just read your phantastic book the valkyries i am sticking in a strange situation though.
i am stuck in a situation of guilt and not knowing what direction to choose and not being able to feel life again, that certain lightness or relief that i do have a feeling that i am destroying the things i love. and i don’t know what to do. wait for things from he outside to come, paying attention, start and make action?
i guess it’s a learing phase and i won’t know until i’m through.
love,
alex.
Great issue – great timeing
…for me personally
True words this
w-w-l*
I have missed a lot of chances because I was not ready to take them on or because somebody sabotaged. Several times I took part in sabotaging myself by seeing that sabotage was being done, and I didn’t do enough to prevent it. I had to go for the long walk first, and then I had to rest for a few days. Then I started thinking clearly. Yesterday I felt that I’m getting ready to start planning the rest of my life. I now I have the mental and physical strength that I need.
I know my path will be taken care of by God. So I do not worry if I have lost a lot of chances. I don’t know if I’ll end up with a tadpole, a frog or a prince – but I’m sure that love will be back in my life some day. And I don’t know if I’ll end up rich or poor – whatever I gain I’ll share.
Most of all I wish for my sons to be happy. Even if it means I might have to sacrifice some of my own happiness. If we all can be happy – well, what more could one ask for? :-)
we are all trapped in some sort of ‘circumstances’ like a tiger in the cage..but our spirit is free and connects us and leads through special powers -revealed/discovered by others- to immortality
“because they believe in miracles, miracles begins to happen”..this line is really close to my heart..thank you Paulo.
in touch
akumla :)
Dearest Paulo,
I’ve been a fan of your books and messages since I was a teenager.You guided me and showed me the way.You took my hand through the dark moment of my life and led me to light.I’m so thankful and so grateful,but you know what?Maybe at those moments I knew little and understood little.But now that I’m an adult,the problems and pains and grief and sorrow in my life and in the world are too much and too heavy that I don’t think I can be lifted anymore.I still read your words and stories,and I’ve read some them for over 20 times,but my heart is too sad that there seems to be no way out of this for me!However,your words calm me down for some time,but my feelings and thoughts are in way changing.Any way,thank you again and again and again.You just give me that enough hope to go on and not collapse!
Love you
On a another successive day of feeling hopeless and frustrated this blog lifted me from my funk. I have been pondering my purpose as my efforts to start a business,get active, make my mark and fulfill my purpose are falling off the rails. I am comforted by these words. Assured that the universe is working with me.
I am sure Dantes verses did not comfort the tiger at all. In contrary he must felt deceived knowing that his only sense of life was to inspire a poet. How arrogant men is in his thinking! Tigers are born to be wild! Surely they are very inspiring – but do they have to bear being captured in cages to fulfill this persue. No, never!
For me this tiger was inspiring – he reminded me of one of my favorite poems, which I had forgotten for a long time – “The Panther” (Rilke). I posted it in “poems”.
Thank you, dear tiger! Don’t give up being wild!
Wow, this is such a great message. And so timely. These days some of my close friends and I feel like there is no purpose in our lives. Some of us try to find a purpose by engaging in stuff that turns out to be meaningless in the end.
Then someone said that maybe we should just wait and God will show us that purpose our souls are seeking when the time is right. Some of us agreed but others didn’t; they said life waits for you to make it not the other way round. While I agree with this, I also believe that your soul speaks to you to tell you the direction you should go and what you should do so that you head in the proper direction, that of fulfilling your personal legend. And the soul speaks when the time is right.
Thanks Paulo for making it easier for us to understand this. We just have to relax. And pay attention:).
I find myself in this moment.
Thank you,
Love
Marie
this is so true,there’s always a reason for everything and in time!God,how much I love!
Thank you.
Deep and great lesson.
Love
the first part is beautiful
the second, concerning a tiger – no animal should be captive – even for immortality’s sake ;o(
Dearest Friend
when i read this yesterday it was just what i needed to hear…thank you…the worlds vibrations always amaze.
co-operatively
jahweedah
Thank you
<3
Indeed excellent words at the right moment in time! Only faith in God through prayer, perseverance and patience can save us. Thank you for sharing this and for the courage we should maintain to keep us alive.
thanks paulo !
love
aditya
Respected Sir–this is indeed very profound and motivating piece. I would like to get more elaboration on the quote in here “”To each defeat, there are two conquests in his favor.”" Kindly help me to make sure I understand what you are trying to convey;
With regards
Andy
……well right now..I am in low spirits!!!! but at the same time I am surprised cause I am feeling like you mention Paulo!! I feel I’m in the wrong place, like knocking the doors and they don’t open..looking how other people knock and in a short moment the doors are open!!! after this reading I think that I am not doing nothing to see that miracles or moments I wanna live! Sometimes we want many things but we don’t struggle enough to reach them..maybe I am not taking risks..and that’s the trouble!! for the now….I’m gonna believe things can happen!..and listen to a song related with this topic..
BeLieVe !!!
Many nights we pray
With no proof anyone could hear
In our hearts a hopeful song
We barely understood
Now we are not afraid
Although we know there’s much to fear
We were moving mountains long
Before we knew we could
There can be miracles
When you believe
Though hope is frail
It’s hard to kill
Who knows what miracles
You can achieve
When you believe
Somehow you will
You will when you believe
In this time of fear
When prayer so often proves in vain
Hope seems like the summer birds
So swiftly flown away
And now I’m standing here
My heart so full I can’t explain
Seeking faith and speaking words
I never thought I’d say
…….I hope I can find my way …………
In the silences , there is the murmur .
in the thought , there are the words.
in the spirit , there is the song of life.
in the soul , there is the poem of the heart of men.
the action is sometimes in the silence of the world of men , and in the words of the world of God and in its landscape if grandiose.
Are you talking about destiny?
Well, I will add ” The Colombe Monster” by Buzatti. A man run away from his destiny all his life, thinking monster bring him death. When he was old, stop and talk to monster. The monster just wanted to give him a gift that will make him powerfull. But he was so old, he could not use it anymore. That is about prejudices, patterns.
As you said, lifes beauty lies even in our failures, surprises might reveal as blessings, road to happiness. Maybe the thing we get instead of our loss, is better, more interesting and worthy. Just today I had such a surprise. I am happy Is the way it is, life is more coloured. Thank you, dear Paulo. You again have given to me a gift. Your words are balm. Always so wise and well chosed. I love Dante Alighieri and J. L.Borges a lot.
I love the first stanzas from the Divine Commedy, and I love them in Italian. I always remember them.
Love
Alexandra
It’s true things don’t always happen the way we want… This very encouraging dearest Paulo. Thank you, beautiful writing and just what I needed to hear.
Thank you.
Love
C.
Something I definitely needed to hear (read) today. Thanks!
Same here.
One of my favorites:
INDIA
They hunt, the velvet tigers in the jungle,
The spotted jungle full of shapeless patches
Sometimes they’re leaves, sometimes they’re hanging flowers,
Sometimes they’re hot gold patches of the sun:
They hunt, the velvet tigers in the jungle!
What do they hunt by glimmering pools of water,
By the round silver Moon, the Pool of Heaven:
In the striped grass, amid the barkless trees
The Stars scattered like eyes of beasts above them!
What do they hunt, their hot breath scorching insects,
Insects that blunder blindly in the way,
Vividly fluttering they also are hunting,
Are glittering with a tiny ecstasy!
The grass is flaming and the trees are growing,
The very mud is gurgling in the pools,
Green toads are watching, crimson parrots flying,
Two pairs of eyes meet one another glowing
They hunt, the velvet tigers in the jungle.
– W. J. Turner
That was good Savita
“Purgatory” …yeah right!There is a waiting list by the look of it!
:)
Jem
I listened to a very entertaining video.
Thank you so much.
“Schools kill creativity” by Sir Ken Robinson.
Must tell Sheelu about that one, a must see.
:)
Dear Mariam
I have read your words and know exactly how you feel. But be strong, have faith in yourself and look in the mirror and smile cause you are still God’s child and he will take care of you. The world is all around you but dont forget of all the problems and heartache there is also good in this world. open yourself to this, it will be hard and i am going through the same emotions you are..sometimes it’s all too much but look around you and be thankful for what you have……
take care
Paris
Yes, that is a fantastic speech! I’ve watched it several times, and each time I take something more from it.
So do I, Savita, Way to go.
:)