By The River Piedra I Sat Down And Wept – Paulo Coelho

I’ve just started reading this book and thought I’d write down my thoughts as I went.  There’s a great page of thoughts early on that focuses on the “magic moment” each day in which we have the ability to change the things that makes us unhappy.  Most people see every day as being the same, but Coelho says every day is different and that those who are looking will see the magic moments and start taking advantage of them.

“Yes, we are going to suffer, we will have difficult times, and we will experience many disappointments – but all this is transitory; it leaves no permanent mark.  And one day we will look back with pride and faith at the journey we have taken.”

Truly, those people who embrace their journey and seek out adventure and change, are the ones that spend the last years of their lives smiling.  When you talk with old people, there are those who seem a little sad and those who seem to be holding some secret, always with a half smile on their face.