I recently came across a book entitled The Alchemist by Brazilian
author Paolo Coelho. This book tells the story of a young shepherd boy who by a
number of random aquiantances and occurrences is pushed onto a quest to fulfill
his "personal legend" which is finding a treasure at the Pyramids of
Egypt. Along the way he becomes wiser and wiser to the nature of the world.
Helped by a wise alchemist the boy learns to listen to his heart, read the
omens around him that exists in everything and the nature of love and its place
within, or more appropriately; outside, his personal legend. Without giving any
more of this wonderful book’s plot away, I can truly say it is one of the best books
I’ve read in many years and what makes my reading experience even more special
is the manner and timing with which this book that I had never heard of came to
me.
It was given to me by a girl I met in the hostel in Sydney where I
worked for two months whom I eventually ended up being very fond of. At the
same time I was at a crossroad in my own travels as the job I had returned to
Sydney for kept getting pushed back and eventually proved to be non-existent.
Then when the girl left I felt Sydney really had nothing for me anymore and I
needed a change of scene and a fresh start. I would then be lying if I said
that the aforementioned girl’s travel itinerary didn’t factor into my decision
to head up the east coast of Australia with her and her friends eventually
ending up in Cairns where I am now located. I have now found a great job with a
travel agency, a job that I probably would not have gotten had I not decided to
undertake the trip with the girl and experience some of Australia’s tourist
attractions along the way. Although the girl has now moved on I truly feel that
my life is back on track and that I am now again moving closer towards my own
personal legend after months of doubt and uncertainty. That this book should
then be the legacy that the girl left with me before she left suddenly makes
the last three months seem like one unbroken string of coincidences that surely
enough led me straight to where I am now, back on track.
This is precisely one of the main points Coelho makes in his book. That
if a person has a will and determination to follow his desires then the
universe will strive to make this journey possible by providing omens and
coincidences that will lead the person in the right direction. Had I not been
offered the fake job in Sydney I would never have gone back there, had I not
been stationed on Heron Island before my return to Sydney with a person who
knew the manager of a hostel in Sydney I would not have gotten my nightwatch
job, had I not gotten my nightwatch job I would not have met the girl, had I
not met and started to like the girl I would not have spent the money to travel
up the coast, had I not travelled up the coast I would not have gotten my
current job and of course a little treat; had I not travelled with the girl I
would not have come across The Alchemist
and made these connections J
It all ties back to what I was talking about in my earlier post entitled The Road Taken. That life is just one main
road, the road taken and that everything that happens on that road shapes who
you are and where you end up. This latest series of events just confirms this
point as well as how potent coincidences are to who we are and who we become. In
the words of The Alchemist my getting
this book at exactly this point when I am feeling blue that the girl left, yet
confident that this new job will point me in the right direction, is definitely
an omen that I am in fact heading in the right direction. Not that I ever
doubted this as there is only the one road taken anyway, but reading The Alchemist has only confirmed this
notion and I warmly recommend reading it, no matter where on the way towards
your own personal legend you are.
