We have to take risks. We can only truly understand the miracle of life when we let the unexpected manifest itself.
Every day – together with the sun – God gives us a moment in which it is possible to change everything that makes us unhappy. Every day we try to pretend that we don’t realize that moment, that it doesn’t exist, that today is just the same as yesterday and will be the same as tomorrow. But if you pay attention, you can discover the magic instant. It may be hiding at the moment when we put the key in the door in the morning, in the silence right after dinner, in the thousand and one things that all seem the same to us. This moment exists – a moment when all the strength of the stars passes through us and lets us work miracles.
Happiness is at times a blessing – but usually it’s a conquest. The magic instant helps us to change, drives us forward to seek our dreams. We shall suffer and go through quite a few difficult moments and face many a disappointment – but this is all transitory and inevitable, and eventually we shall feel proud of the marks left behind by the obstacles. In the future we will be able to look back with pride and faith.
Poor are those who are afraid of running risks. Because maybe they are never disappointed, never disillusioned, never suffer like those who have a dream to pursue. But when they look back – for we always look back – they will hear their heart saying: “What did you do with the miracles that God sowed for your days? What did you do with the talent that your Master entrusted to you? You buried it deep in a grave because you were afraid to lose it. So this is your inheritance: the certainty that you have wasted your life.”
Poor are those who hear these words. For then they will believe in miracles, but the magic instants of life will have already passed.
We must listen to the child that we once were, and who still lives within us. This child understands about magic instants. We can muffle his sobbing, but we can’t hush his voice.
If we aren’t reborn, if we don’t see life again with the innocence and enthusiasm of childhood, then there is no more sense to living.
There are many ways to commit suicide. Those who try to kill their body offend God’s law. Those who try to kill their soul also offend God’s law, although their crime is less visible to the eyes of man.
Let us be heedful of what the child within us has to say. Let’s not feel ashamed of it. Let’s not allow it to feel afraid, because it’s lonely and is scarcely ever heard.
Let’s allow the child within us to take the reins of our existence a little. This child says that one day is different from another.
Let’s make the child feel loved again. Let’s please this child – even if it means acting in a way that we’re not used to, even if it seems foolish in the eyes of others.
Remember that the wisdom of men is madness before God. If we listen to the child we bear in our soul, our eyes will shine once more. If we don’t lose contact with this child, we won’t lose contact with life.
Let’s live all the magic instants of 2009!
Love
There is always someone in the world waiting for someone else, whether in the middle of the desert or in the heart of some big city. And when these two people’s paths cross and their eyes meet, the whole of the past and the whole of the future lose all importance, and there only exists that moment and that incredible certainty that everything under the Sun was written by the very same Hand. The Hand that awakens Love and creates a sister soul for everyone who works, rests and seeks treasures under the Sun. Were it not for this, the dreams of the human race would make no sense.
Gracias Paulo por alentarme con esas palabras, me has conmovido y al terminar me has dado fuerzas para seguir caminando con ilusión.
Mucha gente me dice que soy la inocencia personificada y yo orgullosisima de serlo. No me gusta pasear por la vida con una cara larga que me llega hasta el suelo como muchas veces observo por la calle y hasta mis propios amigos, esa no es mi filosofia; yo necesito: estar alegre, reir, ser simpatica con la gente…, ahi que mirar la vida con la cara del optimismo aun en las epocas que tengas ventiscas, siempre hay que sacar la fuerza del lugar del imposible y vencer contra viento y marea.
Por eso mucha gente me considera tonta por ser como soy pero yo ser inteligente cuando debo de serlo, ahi esta la cuestion, saber por donde andas en el camino de la vida.
*Deylun*
sin el niño que llevamos adentro no podremos descubrir esos instantes magicos.es un grande coelho!!
Ningun dia es igual!!A pesar de que tengamos habitos!!!Cada dia es una bendicion y una oportunidad de Vivir, de renovar, de jugar con ese niño y aventurarnos a hacer algo diferente…Es la esencia de la vida,…En un dia podemos llorar, reir, perdonar, odiar, Amar……Hay dias tan intensos que vale la pena Vivir!!!Hoy Reimos, quizas mañana lloramos, Hoy vivimos y mañana quizas Morimos!!!
Oh by the way, I forgot to thank you sir Paulo. Oh and, I love you
Very lovely post… sets me thinking… how I love the things that set me thin-king
Hehe I’ve just recognized that this word when is cut from the middle makes a picture of a thin king jump into my head 
I wonder if this is the work of my inner child ^_^
Second post by me about Inner Child.
There is so much more which can and needs to be said, but in rereading my initial post, I saw a couple of points which truly need to be made. Today, my inner children are number one in my life, and everything else is number two. She and I are one, and I will never abandon her again, no matter what. I do a check-in with her dozens of times each day, and I check in with her via journeying at least once each day and most days twice each day; morning and evening.
The very BEST, bar none, part of this is that my heart has opened again. I cry a lot, and the tears are full body/from the cellular level; not out of sadness so much any more, but out of sheer, overpowering feelings of pure Love! And as her heart and my heart touched and merged, I again became what and who I was born to be. I love everybody, I am in love with everybody. I can love again. I am not afraid to love again. Living and not loving is not living. I might get creamed again out there in the world, but I’ll not proceed again, I’ll not venture forward again without my Love.
The next to the best part is that as in The Holy Instant, for those familiar with A Course in Miracles, just a small concentrate of love (which is pure light) will cover all of the darkness. I remember going through a pinhole of light to the other side and feeling like I’d fallen into the vastness most brilliant, and I saw everything around me as if it was animated and vibrating musically, synched up, like a grand orchestra. This is how a child sees the world. What a gift. And I wish it for everyone. It is Heaven on Earth, as it was meant to be, or certainly can be, and we all know this to be true. Ahhhh, the gift of children, brought to us by those who take the road less traveled, as you, Paulo, have so graciously done for us. Thank you. Namaste, Jill
What an amazing coincidence! Inner Child work became a part of my life, quite unexpectedly, by default, following something I could not get past, which had come suddenly and got darker and darker. There is a wonderful person (Master?), who is accessible, does journeying-teaches us how to journey, but fortunately for me, answered the phone and ‘drove’ the journey when I got into trouble in my third solo journey. My inner child would not come out; then, trusting in the unconditional love of this man, she did, and I learned why she was afraid. What I never knew was just how horridly I had treated her, not knowing I had, since that time. She’d tagged along, put up with me as I ’succeeded’. But in the end, she, having the real power (of emotions, while I’d done quite well with my wit, wisdom and intellect), shut me down and said ‘Uh-uh, no more; I’m done. You will STOP and take care of me now.’ I am so glad she did! I have discovered HER again, and all of my inner children, who left me when these things occurred. We reconnected at the heart; my heart opened. It had to, in order for her to begin to trust me again. And she is beginning to. And the most amazing thing is how I see all of life now – differerntly. I thought I’d been operating from my heart. I was an advocate, a feminist. Now, while I am still those things, I see that our challenge is to address the fulcrum area: the childhood area. In doing this personal work, I see my little brother as having experienced the same type but more incidents of abuse than I (if it can happen in my family, it can happen in any family). In our society, in our world, at this time, my brother, as a male, will process and deal with his life experience differently than I will, as a female. The problem, the challenge is not a gender one, although it becomes that later on. It is about the children. It is about the children, it is about the children…….
Jill
I’ve always considered myself goofy because of the child in me always being there and getting out.I don’t think I ever tried to keep this part of me locked up. She has always been my faithful companion and has given me the courage to try new things and to just be myself. It’s interesting actually. I was many years ago a child, I gradually grew older and this child is still there inside of me. In essence she is my alter ego, good grief:). I know individuals who have just gotten so old because they don’t let this part of themselves exist anymore. My spirit feels so much younger than my 50 years. Thankyou child-spirit in me….
It was a refreshing read as it has always been.you are right we have to keep taking risks as long as we exist as this is what life is all about.Life is not at all about playing safe,it’s about doing what one has to do,despite of evertything that comes in the way.Unfortunately that’s not the way it is with so many people.Right from the day we are born we have been taught to follow what is being followed and not to try anything different.when someone tries to be different,he faces exile.He in looked down upon by people.That’s exactly what has happened to me.But it hardly perturbs me as i have grown reading your books.So long as i exist,i will keep following whatever you have to say.For me this journey is far more enjoyable than anything.this life is worth living.Thanks for everything that you have been doing for us
This post has just help me so Much today, today I knew desilussion, but if u fall 7 times u gotta get up 8 times! I have just been encouraged by this lecture, Thank u So Much!
Paulo thanks for reminding to keep the child alive in us.
I hope the “Love” moment will continue pretty soon.
Good day to you Sir Paulo!
Upon reading this, I have been moved by your words. As I have been a risk taker myself in many instances since I was a child… Even until now, I can say that I’m risking my mind… my heart to a man whom I never thought nor imagined I will meet in a foreign land. Different cultures, different beliefs and different traditions are in between us. Despite the fact that one day, we may part ways and somehow move on; I still love him- agreed to be his lover and friend. It actually scares and even pains me when it crosses my mind that we may never end up together as happily married couples in the future. But what can I do? We love and want each other. Maybe it really boils down to this: “Happiness is at times a blessing – but usually it’s a conquest. The magic instant helps us to change, drives us forward to seek our dreams.”
Thus, I pray and hope that amidst everything, we will turn out fine and someday, we’ll look back from this moment and tell ourselves, “its worth fighting for.”
Thanks for the inspiration Paulo. More power!
hey,
just discovered your blog recently and i’m really happy to have read about the magic moments. i’ll sure be paying attention now. Thanks for sharing with us your thoughts, Paulo.
This touched me very much … thank you Paulo for writing it
Love Jessica
hello sir
it gives me an immense pleasure to blog you.I have read your many books.I found them so close to our life that sometimes i feel totally lost in the philosphy behind each be it the Alchmemist, Eleven Minutes, River Pedra, Zahir.Yesterday i read BRDIA i felt jubilated while reading .I was suffering from typhoid so that book was like an elixir.I am from differnt end of the world Kashmir India
I LOVE THIS because it is truthful, thank you Paulo.
Yahoooooooooo!! : )
I’ve always believed that we can be young at heart if we keep a child in ourselves. I let myself making mistakes, laugh with them and learn from them. I let myself being silly just to sense a child in me and I’m happy to let it be.
Are you sure, Paulo, that the Hand that awakens Love and creates a sister soul for everyone who works, rests and seeks treasures under the Sun? ARE YOU SURE?!?!?! Than where I stay now? In the middle of the desert, or in the heart of some big city?!?!
Dearest Paulo,
Thank you for this newsletter on The Magic Instant.
Loved reading those magical lines on Love all over again.
I am so excited about The workshop on the Alchemist.My book is with this person who is now in Bangalore.But that’s okay.
I have kept the child alive in me despite all the lessons in life.Thank God for that.When my nieces gifted me with “The Winner Stands Alone in April(the darlings!so thoughtful of them) they gave it to me wrapped in paper that had Capt Nemo’s pictures on it! They discussed it at the bookstore :let’s take this because Sheela Aunty is still a child!!! I think they used the word -kid! (They related all that to me after they got back home)
Love and hugs,
Sheela
what is that risk we must take.
is it risking failure, another failure,
is it risking wasted efforts, again ! and again and again.
is it risking a heartbreak, risking rejection !!
risking appearing a fool, risking ridicule,
as child we don’t know if there is risk involved, we just act and then as we grow up successes and failures, rewards and punishement, admiration and ridicule, makes us evaluate risk in actions. a life lived without risking anything, is like a life spent in a tomb, a very safe risk free place. takes risks, not for the sake of taking risks but for chasing that elusive dream called happiness.
are two required for love, a must, a prerequiste. love is internal ? one can be in a loving state ? the love paulo speaks of above is that love which we seek imagining that it will complete us, make us whole, but everyone who has ventured in that direction ultimately comes to same conclusion, no other human being will be able to make anyone feel complete, forever. that completeness may come only when there is a unios of that interal male and internal female in each of us.
love
aditya
yes, very good indeed…why bother at all what others think about us..they actually don’t think at all about anybody else but themselves, everybody is busy with his/her own thoughts…one way -one goal- one life, no fear of what others might think, they will simply copy the way you live because if you live your own truth everybody listens
no failure, no rejection, because the eternal truth flows through us and sets us free…
regards Marlene
Hola! Hay un pequeño detalle…Dios se manifestó ante nosotros mostrándonos al mundo entero que la mayoría de los niños en este mundo no son felices, no tienen sueños, no leen cuentos, no creen en milagros, no saben de juegos inocentes, no creen en lo que ellos realmente son,¿ por que cada vez hay mas maldad?..Por que no se hace presenté la inocencia. No hay instantes mágicos, y ¿por que sucede esto?…por que el adulto se olvido de trasmitirle el niño que lleva dentro, ya nadie le encuentra sentido a lo simple, a lo espontáneo a lo puro!…y ¿por que hay tantos niños así? Por que somos nosotros los que nos olvidamos de nuestra propia magia interior
Wow! Beautiful – I’m absolutely inspired Paulo. Thank You
Thank you for writing this. I was speechless after I read this issue. It came at a perfect time in my life. I’m not proud of it but I’ve become almost paralyzed in the safe, monotonous but at times unsatisfying world that I’ve created for myself. I used to paint and even managed to sell a few paintings but after receiving a few rejections I froze and became unable to paint again. I have a career to fall back on and listened to my parents advice and completely let go of my “foolish” childish dream to paint. I feel professionally and financially secure but empty. Recently, I’ve been feeling the urge to paint again but I stop myself when I give in to the fears and insecurity that re-surface each time I want to give my dream another chance. This passage was a wake up call for me. Thank you.
I’m in for The magic instant in 2009.
We are what we think we are.
we are therefore we think we are, we are therefore we think what we are.
love
aditya