Paulo Coelho

When she was a child, Magdalena loved to sit on a swing that hung in a huge oak tree in the garden of her grandparents. There were always many birds in the garden and little Maggie enjoyed listening to them, wondering what it was they were telling to each other.

When she was older she read that birds were singing either in order to mark their territory or to attract a potential partner. Magdalena didn’t believe this. There had to be more behind these beautiful sounds and melodies which sounded as if they comprehended more than the human language.

Every night at sunset she opened her window, sat on the windowsill and listened to the birds’ melodies, which she liked to imagine were stories about what each of the birds had experienced that day. She went that far to believe that some birds bore the soul of beloved people who had died years ago and who came down on earth to be close to the loved ones they had left behind.

Whenever she was listening to the birds Magdalena’s mind was lively and imaginative – as if she still was the little girl on the swing. And the fact that the birds could do this to her mind was proof enough for her to believe that there was more – much more – behind this mystery of the birds.