NO LIFE BUT THIS: A Novel of Emily Warren Roebling is available on Amazon and Barnes & Noble.


It is biographical fiction based on the life of Emily Warren Roebling considered to be the first female field engineer and highly instrumental in the building of the Brooklyn Bridge.


http://atbosh.com/authors/diane-vogel-ferri/

Wednesday, June 3, 2009

The Words of Paulo Coelho

I just finished reading The Alchemist by Paulo Coelho. It's a philosophical tale about a shepherd boy setting off to find himself and his dreams and all the life lessons he learns along the way. There is a bit of wisdom on just about every page. But I found that I contemplated a piece from the introduction of the book by the author more than the story:
There are four obstacles. First, we are told from childhood onward that everything we want to do is impossible. We grow up with this idea, and as the years accumulate, so too do the layers of prejudice, fear and guilt. There comes a time when our personal calling is so deeply buried in our soul as ti be invisible. But it's still there.
If we have the courage to disinter dream, we are then faced by the second obstacle: love. We know what we want to do, but are afraid of hurting those around us by abandoning everything in order to pursue our dream. We do not realize that love is just a further impetus, not something that will prevent us going forward. We do not realize that those who genuinely wish us well want us to be happy and are prepared to accompany us on that journey.
Once we have accepted that love is a stimulus, we come up against the third obstacle: fear of the defeats we will meet on the path. We who fight for our dream suffer far more when it doesn't work out, because we cannot fall back on the old excuse: "Oh well, I didn't really want it anyway." We do want it and know that we have staked everything on it and that the path of the personal calling is no easier that any other path, except that out whole heart is in this journey. Then, we warriors of light must be prepared to have patience in difficult times and to know that the Universe is conspiring in our favor, even though was may not understand how.
. . . .Then comes the fourth obstacle: the fear of realizing the dream for which we fought all our lives. Oscar Wilde said: "Each man kills the thing he loves." And it's true. The mere possibility of getting what we want fills the soul of the ordinary person with guilt. We look around at all those who have failed to get what they want and feel that we do not deserve to get what we want either. We forget about the obstacles we overcame, all the suffering we endured, all the things we had to give up in order to get this far. I have known a lot of people who, when their personal calling was within their grasp, went on to commit a series of stupid mistakes and never reached their goal - when it was only a step away.
This is the most dangerous of the obstacles because it has a kind of saintly aura about it: renouncing joy and conquest. But if you believe yourself worthy of the thing you fought so hard to get, then you become an instrument of God, you help the Soul of the World, and you understand why you are here.

5 comments:

Minerva said...

I like your blog. I came over from WIXY's Gone Bananas. You have a way with words.

Susan's Snippets said...

DVF -

Thank you for reminding me of a book that I read years ago - loving the wisdom and truth that it spoke.

and emotions it evoked

Kat Mortensen said...

With me, it's not guilt that I feel, but fear - fear of success, I think.

I have to keep reminding myself that I am cultivating a gift from God - it's through him that I can do what I do best.

Very thoughtful post, Diane.

Kat

Sandy said...

Powerful, true, something to think about. Haven't visited for a while, I hope all is well with you Diane.

Ms Hen's said...

Wow. Thank you for this. Someone just told me about this book saying I should read it.

I have a dream I want to accomplish too. I had this dream since I was little.

(too busy; too many people want the same goal; etc).

I did actually write the whole book and finished two years ago (June 2007) and started the rewrite.. but I got busy with Al-Anon and other ventures.. saying it won' get published so why spend all that time on the rewrite ..

I still want to do it. Thanks for this wake up call.