By the River Piedra I Sat Down and Wept

by Paulo Coelho

Before I fell asleep, I decided I would do what he called the “exercise of the Other.” I am here in this room, I thought, far from everything? familiar to me. talking about things that have never interested me and sleeping in a city where I’ve never set foot before. I can pretend—at least for a few minutes—that I am different. I began to imagine how I would like to be living right at that moment. I wanted to be happy, curious, joyful—living every moment intensely, drinking the water of life thirstily. Believing again in my dreams. Able to fight for what I wanted. Loving a man who loved me. Yes, that was the woman I wanted to be—the woman who was suddenly presenting herself and becoming me. I felt that my soul was bathed in the light of a god—or of a goddess—in whom I had lost faith. And I felt that at that moment, the Other left my body and was standing in the corner of that small room.