Book: In A Free State by V.S. Naipaul

Isn't this a success of a man's compound reflection ??? :)

V.S. Naipaul on In A Free State, "One Out of Many":
To be empty is not to be sad. To be empty is to be calm. It is to renounce.
[p. 55]

the Language of Enthusiasm

it's holiday, and just as usual, it's the peak season of volunteering in AFS and Bina Antarbudaya,
and this is how i feel, and i think, the same feeling nurtures all other volunteers in AFS and Bina Antarbudaya, the feeling that makes us strong to hold on to our dreams, vision and determination despite all threats and temptation of materialism, individualism and apathism..

From the book "The Alchemist" by Paulo Coelho:
"But the sheep had taught him something even more important: that there was a language in the world that everyone understood, a language the boy had used throughout the time that he was trying to improve things at the shop. It was the language of enthusiasm, of things accomplished with love and purpose, and as part of a search for something believed in and desired."
[p.62]

Book: The Alchemist by Paulo Coelho

how beautiful the Language of the World "the LOVE" can be....

At that moment, it seemed to him that time stood still, and the Soul of the World surged within him. When he looked into her dark eyes, and saw that her lips were poised between a laugh and a silence, he learned the most important part od language that all the world spoke—the language that everyone on earth was capable of understandingin their heart. It was love. Something older than humanity, more ancient than the desert. Something that exerted the same force whenever two pairs of eyes met, as had theirs here at the well. She smiled, and that was certainly an omen—the omen he had been awaiting, without even knowing he was, for all his life. The omen he had sought to find with his sheep and in his books, in the crystals and in the silence of the desert.

It was the pure Language of the World. It required no explanation, just as the universe needs none as it travels through endless time. What the boy felt at that moment was that he was in the presence of the only woman in his life, and that, with no need for words, she recognized the same thing. He was more certain of it than of anything in the world. He had been told by his parents and grandparents that he must fall in love and really know a person before becoming committed. But maybe people who felt that way had never learned the universal language. Because, when you know that language, it’s easy to understand that someone in the world awaits you, whether it’s in the middle of the desert or in some great city. And when two such people encounter each other, and their eyes met, the past and the future become unimportant. There is only that moment, and the incredible certainty that everything under the sun has been written by one hand only. It is the hand that evokes love, and creates a twin soul for every person in the world. Without such love, one’s dreams would have no meaning.

Maktub, thought the boy.
[p.92-93]

omens....

i am reading "the Alchemist" of Paulo Coelho now..
it reminds me of how i used to think or actually i always think and decide but just don't realize how strong it actually is..
Omens.. i see them everyday.. i call them everyday.. sometimes i deny them as well..
but why i start to questioning my interpretations, those which i usually believe in..
my God.. please show me more omens....

Book: Elf Minuten/Eleven Minutes by Paulo Coelho

From the book:

"Man kann zum Fruehling nicht sagen, 'hoffentlich kommst du bald und dauerst lange'. Man kann nur sagen: 'Komm und segne mich mit deiner Hoffnung, und bleib so lange, wie du kannst..' " (page 276)

Still from the book:
"Segne mich", bat er.
Ich segnete ihn, ohne zu wissen, was ich da tat. Ich bat ihn, es mir nachzutun, und er tat es mit den Worten: "Gesegnet sei diese Frau, die ich so liebe." Und dann umarmten wir uns wieder und blieben so stehen, fassungslos darueber, wie weit elf Minuten einen Mann und eine Frau bringen koennnen. (page 274-275)

meine Gute, ich denke ich bin echt verliebt :)

Book: The Little Prince / Der Kleine Prinz / Le Petit Prince by Antoine De Saint-Exupéry

I just found the book again while I was “diving” through my exchange year stuffs.
I couldn’t resist not to read it again.

It is calming to read one of the famous lines it has :
“Man sieht nur mit dem Herzen gut. Das Wesentliche ist fuer die Augen unsichtbar.“
the translation is approximately like this:
“Man can only see well with the heart. The essential can not be seen by the eyes.”

I followed the first chapter and got resurprised of what Saint-Exupéry would like to say:
Mature people can not understand things from themselves, they always need explanations.

Yes, explanations. It stroke me harshly this morning reading the book.
We do always need to get explanations. Sometimes the reasons are recognitions, affirmations, or just repetitions. Why is it so that by the time we grow up, we are even more afraid or lazy to see ? to really see ? We are discouraged by our own unfreedom of creativity or imagination. Or we sometimes are discouraged by dishonesty, masks, or we are to proud of just understanding superficial things.
Is it because human relations is already lack of belief, of trust, of good intention ????