By The River Piedra...

I just finished reading 'By the River Piedra I Sat Down and Wept' by Paulo Coelho. It was recommended to me by my good friend Tasleem. I've been a Coelho fan since I read 'The Alchemist' years ago so it was great to find another of his books that (as usual) reached me at the right time.

The River Piedra is mainly about love and forgiveness, both on a human material level, and a higher spiritual one. There is so much I could say about the book, and there are so many moving quotes about love, but there is a paragraph that I wanted to share because to me, it was perfect. These are the thoughts of the main character - Pilar.

It describes to me what can so often transpire in the beginning of love. Before you're enveloped with safety, before you're fully secure. Everyone might not be able to relate, but to me, it's like he reached into my memories and summarised exactly how I've acted...more times than I care to mention!

"Wait. This was the first lesson I had learned about love. The day drags along, you make thousands of plans, you imagine every possible conversation, you promise to change your behaviour in certain ways - and you feel more and more anxious until your loved one arrives. But by then, you don't know what to say. The hours of waiting have been transformed into tension, the tension has become fear, and the fear makes you embarrassed about showing affection."

Awareness is a beautiful thing. As are lessons learned. Not being dictated to by fear was a big lesson learned for me in the last year. So thankfully, it's not a course of action I take as readily. So don't stifle your true self and choose fear. Choose love. :-)