Maktub

I was introduced to "The Alchemist" perhaps about three or four years ago. By a friend, whom I was never close to but whom I shared a sense of mutual respect with. She was an ex-colleague-turned-friend-turned-colleague-again.

One day, after she had already left the company, we met up during one of those gatherings - it was a Hari Raya dinner hosted by one other colleague. She sat with me for a while, and started asking about my life, my job. I thought she saw something in me, that I didn't quite see clearly myself.

Then she surprised me by revealing she had made the decision to leave after a long deliberation (anyone who has worked for the brand long enough will always go through this stage of heart-wrenching deliberation - which probably explains why I'm still here) - and after reading the book. She said, "The book made me decide to leave my job and pursue my dreams."

I think she had meant to encourage me to go buy the book and read for myself.

Either that, or God had put her next to me that fateful evening.


Buy and read the book, I did.

And for the first time in my life, I could see my dreams clearly, and see myself living my dreams. I was suddenly enlivened by a force of will and energy. I didn't make plans to quit immediately, but I started exploring my opportunities - other opportunities that would make my life more meaningful in the way I wanted to live. I knew I could never be a veterinarian in this lifetime of mine; but I could always do other things around dogs - train dogs, care for dogs, work in the SPCA, or even make a business out of dogs.

The man surprised me by offering to pay for my veterinary medicine course - once we had the money. To which, I said smilingly, "Sweetie, it's going to be a six-year course, it's going to cost us a six-figure amount, and I don't know if I can cram all those medical terms into my declining cerebral cells at that age when we finally have those kind of money."

The gesture touched me immensely though, and it made me even more certain I was on the right track, with his blessings.

Months passed, and now years have passed. Nothing has materialized that seems to indicate my dreams are anywhere near being fulfilled. I am still stuck where I was four years ago. And I have pathetically blamed the lack of finances to fund whatever course I had wanted to pursue.

Life, in fact, is steering in a direction where I am about to lose the biggest dream I thought I had safely kept in my pockets, and I'm losing control of it.


A few weeks ago, before I had left for Seattle, it occured to me that I had forgotten about the book that had almost turned my life around, and that perhaps it's time I revisited its wise pages.

"I don't know what I want in life."

The very words that startled me, that prompted me to rediscover the book - but not just for myself. Before I was to read the book again, I gave it to someone who, I thought, perhaps needed it more than I did.

That was the most I could help as a friend, at that moment in time.

I hope he had found the book wise as I've found it to be.


"The Alchemist" is, by first look, a story about a shepherd boy, written in a very simple manner, who dreams of travelling the world and of finding his treasures at the Pyramids. But it is also written with such deep meaning by Paul Coelho that you will only perceive the wisdom and the lessons the way you want to perceive it. Like the writer says, "'The Alchemist' is a symbolic text."

Every page I read, though I've read them before, presented some form of renewal to my mind and soul.

The words seemed to strike my innermost chords, as if Mr. Coelho had written those words especially for my eyes and my soul.


We only accept a truth after we have first wholeheartedly rejected it.

We mustn't run away from our own destiny.

The hand of God is firm, but infinitely generous.

The jacket had a purpose, and so did the boy.

It's the possibility of a dream come true that makes life interesting.

And dreams are the language of God.

At a certain point in our lives, we lose control of what's happening to us, and our lives become controlled by fate. That's the world's greatest lie.

Everyone, when they are young, knows what their destiny is. At that point in their lives, everything is clear and everything is possible. They are not afraid to dream, and to yearn for everything they would like to see happen to them in their lives. But, as time passes, a mysterious force begins to convince them that it will be impossible for them to realize their destiny. It is a force that appears to be negative, but eventually shows you how to realize your destiny. It prepares your spirit and your will, because there is one great truth on this planet: whoever you are, or whatever it is that you do, when you really want something, it's because that desire originated in the soul of the universe. It's your mission on earth.

To realize one's destiny is a person's only real obligation.

And when you want something, all the universe conspires in helping you to achieve it.

People learn, early in their lives, what is their reason for being. Maybe that's why they give up on it so early too.

If you start out by promising what you don't even have yet, you'll lose your desire to work toward getting it.

Never stop dreaming. Learn to recognize omens, and follow them.

Every blessing ignored becomes a curse.

Maktub - it is written.

Making a decision is only the beginning of things. When someone makes a decision, he is really diving into a strong current that will carry him to places he had never dreamed of when he first made the decision.

We are afraid of losing what we have, whether it's our life or our possessions and property. But this fear evaporates when we understand that our life stories and the history of the world were written by the same Hand.

Don't be impatient. Eat, when it's time to eat. Move along, when it's time to move along.

The most important part of the language that all the world spoke - the language that everyone on earth is capable of understanding in their heart. It is love. Something older than humanity, more ancient than the desert. Something that exerts the same force whenever two pairs of eyes meet.

It is the pure Language of the World. It requires no explanation, just as the universe needs none as it travels through endless time.

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 meet, 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.

It was those omens that brought you to me.

If I'm really a part of your dream, you'll come back one day.

When you are in love, things make even more sense.

It's not what enters men's mouths that's evil; it's what comes out of their mouths that is.

Love never keeps a man from pursuing his destiny. If he abandons that pursuit, it's because it wasn't true love.

One is loved because one is loved. No reason is needed for loving.

I love you because the entire universe conspired to help me find you.

I'm a woman of the desert. But, above all, I'm a woman.

If what one finds is made of pure matter, it will never spoil.

Listen to your heart. It knows all things.

The fear of suffering is worse than the suffering itself.

When you possess great treasures within you and try to tell others of them, seldom are you believed.

Because when we love, we always strive to become better than we are.

When you are loved, there's no need at all to understand what's happening, because everything happens within you.

Everything that happens once can never happen again. But everything that happens twice will surely happen a third time.


The book writes of love in the end. And of love the way I've known it to be. Maybe I was not wrong after all.