I finished reading a wonderful novel a few weeks ago that contained a beautiful story in it which I wanted to post on my blog. But, I figured it might be a little too long and that I might be infringing on the copyright notice of “except in the case of brief quotations embodied in critical articles and reviews.”
As I’ve mentioned in a previous post, Paulo Coelho is one of my favorite authors. His book “The Alchemist
So, I’m going to take a little liberty and post this wonderful story from Paulo Coelho’s book “Eleven Minutes: A Novel
“Once upon a time, there was a bird. He was adorned with two perfect wings and with glossy, colorful, marvelous feathers. In short, he was a creature made to fly about freely in the sky, bringing joy to everyone who saw him.
One day, a woman saw this bird and fell in love with him. She watched his flight, her mouth wide in amazement, her heart pounding, her eyes shining with excitement. She invited the bird to fly with her, and the two traveled across the sky in perfect harmony. She admired and venerated and celebrated that bird.
But then she thought: He might want to visit far-off mountains! And she was afraid, afraid that she would never feel the same way about any other bird. And she felt envy, envy for the bird’s ability to fly.
And she felt alone.
And she thought: “I’m going to set a trap. The next time the bird appears, he will never leave again.”
The bird, who was also in love, returned the following day, fell into the trap and was put in a cage.
She looked at the bird every day. There he was, the object of her passion, and she showed him to her friends, who said: “Now you have everything you could possibly want.” However, a strange transformation began to take place: now that she had the bird and no longer needed to woo him, she began to lose interest. The bird, unable to fly and express the true meaning of his life, began to waste away and his feathers to lose their gloss; he grew ugly; and the woman no longer paid him any attention, except for feeding him and cleaning out his cage.
One day, the bird died. The woman felt terribly sad and spent all her time thinking about him. But she did not remember the cage, she thought only of the day when she had seen him for the first time, flying contentedly amongst the clouds.
If she had looked more deeply into herself, she would have realized that what had thrilled her about the bird was his freedom, the energy of his wings in motion, not his physical body.
Without the bird, her life too lost all meaning, and Death came knocking at her door. “Why have you come?” she asked Death. “So that you can fly once more with him across the sky,” Death replied. “If you had allowed him to come and go, you would have loved and admired him even more; alas, you now need me in order to find him again.”
Visit Paulo’s blog for quotes, stories, interviews and more: Paulo Coelho
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Hi Tania,
I love The Alchemist. I wrote about it last year on my former blog.
Thanks for sharing that wonderful excerpt. It really illustrated how we want to capture those we love for our pleasure, and how we can’t see when we clip their wings.
Paula Coelho writes with such simple grace that seeps through the Soul.
Btw, would you like to exchange links with me?
Just let me know.
Blessings.
The message I understand is, if you love someone, don’t put him in a cage. He will not be the same person you adored in captivity.
Currently I believe that all souls are on a journey, and they have to take reponsibilities for their decisions.
If the bird is captured, he has to find a way to escape, that is part of his journey.
If the women entraps birds, she has to find out the meaning of the for her journey. For both of them, there is no need to die but a challenge to understand.
So, I find the story in the end rather gloomy and would prefer a happy ending.
Again, something I have read in a book with Osho citations. Never try to capture love, love is like a breeze, it comes and it goes.
Beautiful.
I am subscribed to this blog since now!
Beautiful, Tania. Thanks.
Paulo Coelho is one of my favorites, too. I was pleasantly shocked to find his blog site not too long ago. It is so cool to be just a few keystrokes away from a major world personality.
BTW, I think of “Mystic Pizza” every time I run across your blog. I liked the movie.
Beautiful story.
How many of our little desires are simply a mask for a deeper, stronger thirst for freedom?
And the small freedoms that we pursue are a poor substitute for the greater freedom to find and be who we truly are.
Joel
This is the second time in two days I’ve come across a blog mentioning this book. It sounds very interesting so I’ve added it to my list of books to read. Thanks for sharing that beautiful story from the book.
Freedom is the wind that fills your sail, the wind that cools your face when you are on your motorcycle and the wind that holds your plane in flight.
I have lived those freedoms so therefore I have lived.
Freedom is the passion that fills your heart.
I love Paulo Coelho too, the last book I read was Maktub and Veronika decides to die. I like your blog too.
hello!
I’m a big Paulo Coelho’s fan and I don’t know if you heard about his blog
http://www.paulocoelhoblog.com
I’ve started as a fan and now I’m collaborating with him and thought that you would like to enter his universe.
Check the blog.
if you want, or subscribe to his newsletter
http://www.warriorofthelight.com/engl/index.html
You’ll see a community of warriors of light sharing ideas, dreams and most importantly following their personal legend.
QUOTE OF THE DAY:
The Warrior of Light does not keep company with those who wish to harm him.
(Manual of the Warrior of Light)
Have a nice day!
Aart
A related saying exists:
If you love someone,
Set him/ her free.
If s/he returns to you, then s/he’s yours,
If s/he doesn’t return, s/he never was.
You may also enjoy variations of this saying accessible here:
http://hkn.eecs.berkeley.edu/~ntang/jokes/loveSomeone