" SpiritofSaltSpring:BC:Canada:GulfIslands:SaltSpring:Salt Spring:

July 19, 2008

One Path

A Warrior of the light often loses heart.

She believes that nothing can stir in her the emotion she desires. She is forced to spend many nights feeling that she is one of the vanquished, and nothing seems able to restore her enthusiasm.

Her friends say, "Perhaps her fight is over."

The warrior feels pain and confusion when she hears such remarks because she knows that she has not yet reached the place that she wants to reach. But she is stubborn and she refuses to relinquish her aims.

Then, when she least expects it, a new door opens.

-from Warrior of the Light by Paulo Coelho with me changing "he" to "she".

3 comments:

Ben Anderson said...

If a man has spent all his days about some business, by which he has merely got to be rich, as it is called, i.e., has got much money, many houses and barns and woodlots, then his life has been a failure, I think; but if he has been trying to better his condition in a higher sense than this, has been trying to invent something, to be somebody - i.e., to invent and get a patent for himself - so that all may see his originality, though he should never get above board - and great inventors, you know, commonly die poor - I shall think him comparatively successful.

- Henry David Thoreau -

Gayle Mavor said...

Being incredibly wealthy does not mean you can not also be incredibly inventive, spiritual, philanthropic and trying to better your soul, so I think, ideally, we would all be so lucky, and life would be easier and full of more aesthetic beauty if more people on the planet had the luxury of being both - rich and conscious.

Ben Anderson said...

Yes, it is true that life would be more joyful and full of more aesthetic beauty, and indeed easier, if more people on the planet had the luxury of being both - rich and conscious. The key word there being luxury. Realistically, it is relatively rare, and the people are few and far between, that possess both attributes. Generally, wealth tends to corrupt (I use the term loosely) people.

The point of Thoreau's statement, in his view, is to focus on the latter first and foremost, as a priority.