The Alchemist

[KP the nut]

I totally believe in following your destiny/reading the omens. Or maybe someone/ a guardian angel guiding us - sh*t, I don't know.

Can I sight from a past experience? Tough if no, cos I'm doing it anyway :p.

H an I emigrated to South Africa in 1981. Ten years and two children late, I suddenly decide I want/need to return to England. No solid reason, I loved our life and Cape Town. Nethertheless the pull to England was there.

My Mum, had never seen her grandchildren. We came back to England, my Mum had the chance to meet and know the girls. After we had been home 7 months, my Mum died very suddenly. I know it would have been much harder to deal with had we still been overseas.

Destiny, listening to omens - I don't know. But, to this day I am thankful that I followed my heart.

Maybe that is why this book struck such a cord.

 

[anthony]

I went for: Unbroken: A World War II Story of Survival, Resilience, and Redemption

 

[Tessa]

I have just finished The Alchemist and really enjoyed it.

Very thought provoking and reminds me of my own life. As a child I had a vision and have spent my life pursuing it and achieving it despite many obstacles.

It is so true that often we complicate things with so many layers when the soul is all around us. I remember a boss once asking me how I managed to make it all work under difficult working conditions and I told him it was love. He gruffly replied that it must be more than that however I will stick to simple love.

 

[KP the nut]

Unbroken: A World War II Story of Survival, Resilience, and Redemption

A nice soft and fluffy choice then :roflmao:. I guess one of the aims of the Book Club is to take us out of our comfort zones and so far, each book chosen has done that.

Maybe it's time for my reading to be shaken up.

 

[kimba]

Have a few things on my plate right now and am bowing out of the next book scheduled. Will be back later.

 

[ericaboo]

I started reading it - hard to connect a first - not intense enough for my spinning brain, but I'm going to give it another whirl this weekend - your comments show me it's worth the read!

I don't have anyone in my normal life who would read the same book and discuss like this - I think it's way cool. I'll let you know what I think of The Alchemist :D

 

[ericaboo]

Thanks for whoever suggested this book - wonderful story!

Most relevent for my life right now:

"You will never be able to be able to escape from your heart. So it's better to listen to what it has to say. That way, you'll never have to fear an unanticipated blow." (135-136)​

I didn't feel like I could live with what was in my broken heart, so I pretended to live a completely different, fake, life. Then reality came crashing down. My path to healing involves remaining aware of who I really am, where I came from, and holding onto my dreams despite all that has happened.

Can't wait to read the next book!

 

[intothelight]

I just finished this book and there were so many truths that will stay with me. I just wanted to put down a few of my favorite passages.

If someone isn't what others want them to be, the others become angry. Everyone seems to have a clear idea of how other people should lead their lives, but none about his or her own. pg. 16

This struck a personal note as this has been the key feature in so many of my toxic relationships. Also hit home as I have spent too much time looking outside of myself to others to define who I am instead of looking inside at who I want to be.

He suggested boy look around the palace and return in two hours two hours.....As you wonder around, carry this spoon with you without allowing the oil to spill.....The boy was embarrassed, and confessed that he had observed nothing. His only concern had been not to spill the oil the wise man had entrusted to him....Relieved, the boy picked up the spoon and returned to his exploration of the palace, this time observing all....Upon returning to the wise man, he related in detail everything he had seen. But where are the drops of oil I entrusted to you, asked the wise man. Looking down at the spoon he held, the boy saw the oil was gone. pgs. 31-32

The parable could have many different meanings. What I took from it was to take care of our responsibilities, but not to forget to "smell the roses" along the way. Balance is the goal.

Some of my favorites from Part I.

 

[intothelight]

Because I do not live in either my past or my future. I'm interested only in the present. If you can concentrate only in the present, you will be a happy man....because life is the moment we are living in right now. pg. 85

Perhaps the biggest lesson I take with me after reading this, life is truly in the moment. Once cannot change the past, and the future is a new adventure. It can be looked forward to, or feared; but that decision rests with the individual. It is the here and now that counts and what we make of it. We can fear it, or embrace it and live it. Focus on the positive; or continue to allow the negatives to bleed through from the past and shadow the present and cloud the possibility for happiness.

Hits home with PTSD and the importance of recovery. I am sick of my past bleeding into my present and doing my best to redirect that flow. Can't find the quote on "decisions", but I remember it would fit well here.

 

[KP the nut]

Because I do not live in either my past or my future. I'm interested only in the present. If you can concentrate only in the present, you will be a happy man....because life is the moment we are living in right now. pg. 85

Deb, that is one of my favourite passages. It is what I try to do but cr*p keeps pushing in from the past especially.

 

[intothelight]

KP,

I keep striving to reach that goal too. Some days I succeed better than others. Honestly though, it is more frequent so that is a huge improvement.

I hope that you continue to live and enjoy the present. Heard that is why it is called "present"; because it is one.:)

Deb

 

[Hashi]

I'm treading a bit carefully here. Warning - my view of the book isn't positive. it seems that everyone else's is and I don't want to rain on anyone's parade, so just skip this if you don't want to read something anti. Be warned, I am extremely anti.

When I read this book, I kept looking back to the cover, introduction, anything that would acknowledge it wasn't Coelho's own story. There was nothing. I recognised it immediately as a story from the Thousand and One Nights. In fact, it's an old folk tale in many cultures, in one guise or another - in England, it's The Pedlar of Swaffham, first recorded in 1699. It's padded out a bit but the original story is what everyone is so impressed with.

There's something that feels so wrong about this, especially since it's supposedly such an insightful and spiritual book. What's insightful and spiritual about secretly stealing a story and passing it off as your own? To me, it's particularly ironic that it's called The Alchemist because the shadow side of alchemy is fraud. (The worst kind of Alchemist is the one selling fake remedies on market day.)

That said, it is a beautiful story with a lot of truth. Just... not Paolo Coelho's.