Words For The Weekend – Paulo Coelho

Some great words from one of my favorite writers, Paulo Coelho.

Avoid those who believe they are stronger than you, because they are actually concealing their own fragility.

Stay close to those who are not afraid to be vulnerable, because they have confidence in themselves and know that, at some point in our lives, we all stumble; they do not interpret this as a sign of weakness, but of humanity.

Avoid those who seek friends in order to maintain a certain social status or to open doors they would not otherwise be able to approach.

Stay close to those who are interested in opening only one important door: the door to your heart. They will never invade your soul without your consent or shoot a deadly arrow through that open door.

Friendship is like a river; it flows around rocks, adapts itself to valleys and mountains, occasionally turns into a pool until the hollow in the ground is full and it can continue on its way.

Just as the river never forgets that it’s goal is the sea, so friendship never forgets that its only reason for existing is to love other people

From: Manuscript found in Accra

The 3 symptoms of killing our dreams

This is the second time I’ll make a post with a reference to Paulo Coelho. The writer that never got The Nobel Prize, but definitely should have got it by now.

The article is from Paulo Coelho’s blog and it’s about how we sometimes just let our dreams vanish instead of keep chasing them.

I hope you find it interesting…

Link to the article

Seaweed in Piteå
(c) Pedro Hansson - Seaweed in Piteå - Nikon D7000

Happiness

Yesterday Paulo Coelho wrote something at his Facebook-page that I truly believe in, and he wrote it in such simplicity (maybe that’s why he is a writer and I’m not? 🙂 ) that I just felt I had to comment on it.

I stopped to self-improve myself many years ago. The idea that “the great opportunities lie just over the horizon, in the next valley, with the next job or the next big thing” is not true. It lies here and now – and you are ready to grab it, regardless your imperfections.
– Paulo Coelho

For me this is the sweet spot, a home run and a grand slam of what I believe in when it comes to happiness and life.

I think that we often try to find happiness in so many things and ways, that “are not”, instead of just accepting ourselves as we are, and with our own capabilities. Today there is a huge Happiness-industry that make a living on telling us how to live our lives, how we should be, what we shall believe in and so on, instead of just letting ourselves believe in and being in our own present.

… guess happiness never will be a quick solution, it’s an ongoing fight to be here right now and appreciate what we got, instead of what don’t. It’s never easy but I truly believe in not thinking to much, and be thankful for what we got, and the cures for our happiness that are on sale in the nearest store, very rarely brings any happiness at all; in the marathon we call life.

Autumn sunrise - Piteå
(c) Pedro Hansson - Nikon D5000 - Sunrise in Piteå - As always, straight out from the cam except for naming (and sometimes croping)