Paulo Coelho

Like the sun, life spreads its light in all directions.

And when we are born, we want everything at once and cannot control the energy we have been given.

But, if we want to make a fire, we have to focus all the sun’s rays on one spot.

And the great secret that the Divine Energy revealed to the world was fire. Not just fire for burning, but the fire that transforms wheat into bread.

And there comes a moment when we need to focus that inner fire so that our life will have some meaning.

Then we ask the heavens: ‘But what meaning?’

Some immediately brush this question aside: it’s bothersome, it won’t let you sleep and there’s no easy answer. They are the ones who, later on, will live tomorrow as if it were yesterday.

And when the Unwanted Visitor arrives, they will say: ‘My life was too short, I squandered my blessing.’

Others embrace the question, but, since they don’t know the answer, they start to read what was written by those who have already faced up to the challenge. And suddenly, they find an answer which they judge to be correct.

When that happens, they become the slaves of that answer. They draw up laws intended to force others to accept what they believe to be the sole reason for existence. They build temples to justify it and courts for those who reject what they consider to be the absolute truth.

Finally, there are those who saw at once that the question was a trap: there is no answer.

Instead of wasting time grappling with that trap, they decide to act. They go back to their childhood and look for what filled them with enthusiasm then and – disregarding the advice of their elders – devote their life to it.

Because Enthusiasm is the Sacred Fire.