Little Book, Big Message

Is it possible to look back and pick defining moments in our reading lives? I was nearing the end of college, probably about the time many get obsessed with new jobs and new relationships. Some are starting families and just cannot find the same amount of time to read. I think I was one or two bad books from watching more tv and reading less.

Then a beautiful cover caught my eye in a bookstore. I know; don’t judge a book by its cover, but whoever designed that cover really pulled me into that book. It was the paperback version of The Alchemist by Paulo Coelho. It is a relatively short read about a boy tracking down his Personal Legend. It speaks of destiny and advises against fear of failure. It is many things and different each time it is read.

It is full of breathtaking quotes and inspires readers to go out and do something and not just let the world come to you. Coelho talks of love in ways few authors can. I was just about to get married. So the book hit home on many different levels. More importantly, it reawakened my love for reading that had been ebbing away since the end of the Harry Potter series. I started to grab more works by Coelho and really opened my mind to international authors.

Perhaps the most effective part of Coelho’s words is the inspiration to find beauty in the ordinary and to find love in every day spaces. As Coelho says in The Alchemist, “When each day is the same as the next, it’s because people fail to recognize the good things that happen in their lives every day that the sun rises.”

Each day I work closer to discovering my Personal Legend, or perhaps it is wrapped in the ordinary things each day like the laugh of a child or the smile of a spouse. Don’t forget to recognize the beauty in the mundane things today.