I remember reading The Alchemist years ago. I was very young, and the story moved me deeply.
[Spoiler alert!]
I thought it was magical and wonderful that the main character searched for something for so long, in so many places, only to find it in the very place where he began.
Back then, to me, it was simply a beautiful story—a wonderful piece of fiction that existed in the world of books.
Today, I see it differently.
Today, I feel I have traveled through so many experiences: running away, believing I needed to change something about myself, believing I needed to change something in others, chasing love, believing love came from outside of me, changing so much in exchange for acceptance, moving away, returning, learning, unlearning…
Only to come back to myself: to the place where nothing has ever truly moved, where nothing ever changes, and where everything remains peacefully as it is.
Today, it is no longer a book. It is not someone else’s story, nor is it a utopia. It is a true love story, experienced through me.
It has been a constant movement, a constant effort within a dream. And in waking from that dream—in returning to the very first moment—I recognize that what is most precious, the greatest love, and the lightest freedom have always been here.
The entire journey within the dream was necessary to arrive at this moment: the recognition that all the magic of existing is right here, in this very moment. Here, everything is absolutely okay. There is nothing to change or improve. There is only stillness, and the joy of being who you are, exactly as you are.
It reminds me of those stories and illustrations about a wave searching for the ocean, or someone searching for God and chasing after an experience—when all it takes is to stop and notice that everything already rests and lives here.
You are the wave, but you are also the ocean.
Happy Monday to all of you, my dear friends of the internet.
