Harley's comments (member since Mar 15, 2009)

Harley's comments from the Paulo Coelho group.

Thank you, Paulo, for sharing your wisdom and knowledge in the book, The Witch of Portobello.

For those who are following this thread, I will not discuss the ending because I do not want to spoil it for others who are reading the book.

I challenge those who read the book to respond to the questions I have raised and to raise your own questions.

On page 243, Heron Ryan says: "Free will demands immense responsibility; it's hard work, it brings with it anguish and suffering."

This touches on the age old discussion between free will and predestination. Are you able to choose or are you predestined to make the choices and take the actions that you do? I don't think it is neither one or the other. I think we choose in the end to do what we we are meant to do. Our choices make us who we are — who we are supposed to be. It is a paradox — two sides of the same puzzle.

I live my life and make choices but my choices take me where I am supposed to be. I committed myself to being a minister when I was a sophomore in high school. By the time I was a senior, I no longer believed in God. That was the path I chose. I turned to writing instead. At the age of 40 I entered the world of public speaking and have spent the last 20 years as a professional speaker — in other words, a preacher. The gospel I preach touches the hearts of many and gives them hope even if my pulpit is not in a church. My choices took me to where i was supposed to be. The path I chose may have been different but the destination was the same.

Have you made the choices necessary to be where you are supposed to be?

I love this sentence of yours, Karen:

"While we travel through space and time writing the storybooks of our lives we are each evolving at our own rate."

Yes, we each are writing the storybooks of our own lives. How powerful!

On page 217, Diedre O'Neill relates a discussion that her protector shared with her about the progression of humans through the ages.

"Human beings are still asking the same questions as their ancestors. In short, they haven't evolved."

The question is: Have human beings progressed or are they the same as they were 10,000 years ago? 2,000 years ago? 200 years ago?

I believe that we have made progress in the external world. We create new things and new ways of seeing. I am not sure that we have made progress in the internal world of emotions and the heart. And we are no more moral today than yesterday. What do you think? Has mankind progressed?

Diedre O'Neill says on page 213:

"The true teacher gives the disciple the courage to throw his or her world off balance, even though the disciple is afraid of things already encountered and more afraid still of what might be around the next corner."

Have you ever been a disciple of anyone? I have not. I have never met anyone who I would follow and sit at his/her feet and absorb the wisdom. Maybe I have not met the right teachers, but I also feel I am very independent of thought and it is very difficult for me to believe in the wisdom of one person.

Now, I have learned things from people, but I have found no one who I would be willing to follow without question? Are you willing to follow anyone without question?

Athena says to Heron Ryan (p. 154):

"How many books have you got? Over a thousand, I'd say. But most of them you'll probably never open again. You hang onto them because you don't believe.... Or is it that you don't feel you've learned anything from them and need to consult them again?"

When I read this it was like listening to my wife. She often is suggesting that I give my books away. That I don't need so many. In fact, because of her urging, I gave ten books away this weekend, but I still have hundreds, most of which I will not read again. And some I have not read yet and may never read.

Are our books clutter in our lives? Would we be better off if we read the books and then gave them to someone who would enjoy reading them. There is a website that encourages just that. Read books and then release them into the wild to be found by others.

http://www.bookcrossing.com/

Liliana says (p. 118):

"We don't believe that God made the universe. We believe that God is the universe and that we are contained in him, and he in us."

How profound! God did not make the universe in seven days. There was no beginning. God is the universe. God always has existed. The universe has always existed. And we exist within God and God is within us. We have always existed and will always exist.

What do you believe?

Sherine says (p. 84):

"I don't see why I should bother to look for someone who never took the trouble to love me."

Sherine (Athena) made this statement before departing to find her birth mother who gave her up for adoption. The statement has significant meaning for me since my wife and I have had custody of her great niece since the girl was two weeks old. We talk about the fact that one day our niece may go in search of her mother and ask her why she gave her up. Didn't she love her?

Is there someone in your life who you feel never took the time to give you the love and attention you needed? I was very fortunate that both my parents loved me. But I have met many people who have felt abandoned by their parents.

Nabil Alaihi says (p. 83):

"If all the words were joined together, they wouldn't make sense, or, at the very least, they'd be extremely hard to decipher. The spaces are crucial."

The spaces are crucial and so are the silences. I believe in the power of silence. We have so much noise in our society that we can't hear God. We can't hear ourselves think. We need those moments of silence to rejuvenate our spirit. We need the spaces between the words to understand the meaning of life.

Do you have spaces in your life? Do you have silences in your life?

Nabil Alaihi says (p. 75):

"My way of approaching Allah—may his name be praised—has been through calligraphy, and the search for the perfect meaning of each word. A single letter requires us to distill in it all the energy it contains, as if we were carving out its meaning. When sacred texts are written, they contain the soul of the man who served as an instrument to spread them throughout the world. And that doesn't apply only to sacred texts, but to every mark we place on paper. Because the hand that draws each line reflects the soul of the person making the line.

Mark Vonnegut wrote about his father, Kurt: "Writing was a spiritual exercise for my father, the only thing he really believed in."

At my age I find both of these statements to be so true for me. I have been writing for over 35 years and only recently did I discover that it is a spiritual exercise for me. Writing is something I have to do. Whenever I stop writing for any length of time, my soul begins to die. Writing for me is like dance for Athena and calligraphy for Nabil. I find in creativity the power to heal my spirit and to set me free from traumas of the mundane world.

How do you approach God? How do you dance with ecstasy? How do you travel the universe?

Athena says (p. 50)

"Yes, when I dance, I'm a free woman, or, rather, a free spirit who can travel through the universe, contemplate the present, divine the future, and be transformed into pure energy."

The last thing I expected was this book to be about spiritual dance. Growing up Mennonite, I was not allowed to dance at all. I had to break my parents rules in order to dance. And I have never been good at it.

I took a class a few years ago on movement and creativity and it was fascinating. But that is as far as I have gone?

Do you dance with the wind? Have you let yourself go and felt the wind in the hair? Why do we have a need to dance?

Athena tells the priest (p. 33):

"I'm only happy when I think that God exists and is listening to me; but that isn't enough to go on living, when nothing seems to make sense. I pretend happiness I don't feel; I hide my sadness so as not to worry those who love me and care about me. Recently, I've even considered suicide. At night, before I go to sleep, I have long conversations with myself, praying for this idea to go away; it would be such an act of ingratitude, an escape, a way of spreading tragedy and misery over the earth."

These words hit close to home. I have known people who have felt this way -- who pretend to be happy while contemplating suicide. Why do so many people feel so alone and unhappy? Why can't we accept who we are?

I believe our names are very important. Our name identifies whom we become. I have been told by a few women that they were named after a former girl friend of their father. Think about that.

Karen, you mentioned prophetic dreams. In December 1972, I was keeping a dream journal and recorded a dream about my getting married to a short woman who spoke a foreign language. In January 1973, I was introduced to her at my sister's wedding. Ten short months later we were married and this October will be married 36 years. She is short, of Mexican American ancestry and speaks fluent Spanish.

I believe in prophetic dreams and I know you do, Karen? I wonder if any of the people who are following this thread have had prophetic dreams and are willing to share.

Karen wrote:

"My advice is that one should always know if one is dancing for the joy of it, an audience or a puppet master, what the music is and how fast it's playing. It's also good to remember that it is not always neccessary to be dancing at all."

Wow, Karen! That is powerful and can be applied to so many areas of our lives. How often do we perform for the applause? Or react to someone else pulling the strings? Or do something for the mere pleasure?

On page 18, Samira Khalil, the mother of Athena, says:

"Can a name affect a person's life? Time passed and the name stuck."

Samira is referring to the fact that her adopted daughter Sherine gave herself the name Athena and she postulates that the name shaped her daughter's destiny.

What about you? Did your name shape who you are? I am named after my father. When I meet people the first time, they often ask if I own a Harley Davidson, referring to the motorcycle. I have never been interested in motorcycles or had the desire to ride one. My name has become a conversation opener and a image maker.

How did your name shape who you are?

On page 11, Deidre O'Neill says:

"Everyone's looking for the perfect teacher, but although their teachings might be divine, teachers are all too human, and that's something people find hard to accept. Don't confuse the teacher with the lesson, the ritual with the ecstasy, the transmitter of the symbol with the symbol itself."

This statement is so true. There are no perfect teachers. No one teacher has all the answers. Every teacher makes mistakes. How often do we confuse the messenger with the message. There is a saying in corporate culture when someone has to bring bad news to the boss: "Don't shoot the messenger."

Natalie Goldberg in her memoir, The Great Failure, tells a story of being disappointed when she discovers the weaknesses of her Zen teacher. We become disillusioned when we find out that people are not what they claim to be. Maybe even in their moments of weakness the great teachers are teaching us something.

I have heard stories of writers who write great books about relationships of people, but they themselves have been married five times or were mean and cruel to their children.

Share a story of a teacher who has disappointed you. I would love to hear it.

On page 7, Heron Ryan says:

"Then following the advice of my grandmother, I'll place an open pair of scissors on my bedside table to snip off the end of the dream. The next day, I'll look at the scissors with a touch of regret, but I must adapt to living in the world again or risk going mad."

Have you ever awaken and your dream was not finished? What a wonderful image of the scissors snipping off the end of the dream. Have you ever wanted to continue living in your dream world, not wanting to wake up, clinging to that last moment of sleep.

I love dreaming and sometimes it is difficult for me to leave that world for the mundane world of being awake. What about you?

The opening paragraph reads:

"No one lights a lamp in order to hide it behind a door: the purpose of light is to create more light, to open people's eyes, to reveal the marvels around."

Are you hiding your light from the world. We all have talents and gifts. Sometimes we do not share our gifts with others. We hide our light so others can't see it. Sharing our gift means making ourselves vulnerable to others.

Sometimes I have chosen not to speak up, not to share my opinion, afraid of what others might say, afraid that others might not understand and criticize.

Is your light hidden or are you revealing the marvels around you?

I have started a new journey through the pages of The Witch of Portobello and I encourage you to join me with your comments and insights. If you have already read the book, then share your wisdom. If you have not read it, please join me anyway.