I just finished reading Paulo Coelho’s “Eleven Minutes” while waiting for my return flight to Philly. “Eleven Minutes” depicts the conflicting thoughts on love a young woman carries on her journey to reaching her dream.
I can’t help but to think about love in as many variations as possible. Love comes in so many packages and I embrace those packages as long as they are genuine, risky and passionate. I’ve never personally been at a place where love and my dreams have conflicted. In my mind they coincide with each other, one cultivates the other. There was one paragraph in the book that really jumped onto my back so of course I have to share it:
“You experienced pain yesterday and you discovered that it led to pleasure. You experienced it today and found peace. That’s why I’m telling you don’t get used to it, because it’s very easy to become habituated; it’s a very powerful drug. It’s in our daily lives, in our hidden suffering, in the sacrifice we make, blaming love for the destruction of our dreams. Pain is frightening when it shows its real face, but it’s seductive when it comes disguised as sacrifice or self-denial. Or cowardice. However much we may reject it, we human beings always find a way of being with pain, or flirting with it and making it a part of our lives.”
I can only speak for myself when I say despite my hardships I love the person I am and who I am becoming, but adversity is not a space I want to live in, look for, or equate with pleasure. I strive for love and happiness every day because adversity comes unsolicited, unwelcomed, and unexpected anyway. People endure unasked for pain and suffering every day, no worries, our next turn is sure to come! With that said, I take no interest in asking for it as if it were my favorite bowl of cream of wheat. I only leave room for 2 at my table… Love and happiness. #WhatILearnedAsAnADult
-FM
mycatbarks 