Viv is currently reading...

the Zahir... its a story about a rich and famous man, whose wife went missing. And in his attempt to recapture a lost love, he will discover something unexpected about himself.

and yes, viv has finished reading like the flowing river. and here, viv would like to share with you the last story in the book - the storm approaches... and this is exactly how viv is feeling rite now...

...It is that same silence that surrounds me now, and which is gradually being replaced by the sound - very soft - of the breeze in the maize fields around me. The atmospheric pressure is changing. The storm is getting closer and closer, and the silence is beginning to give way to the gentle rustling of leaves.

I have witnessed many storms in my life. Most storms have taken me by surprise, and so I've had to learn - and very quickly too - to look farther off, to understand that I cannot control the weather, to practise the art of patience, and to respect nature's fury. Things do not always happen the way I would have wanted, and it's best that I get used to that.

Many years ago, I wrote a song that said: ' I lost my fear of the rain because when the rain falls to earth it always brings with it something of the air'. Its best to master my fear, to be worthy of the words I wrote, and to understand that, however bad the storm, it will eventually pass.

.....

I can see the storm approaching. As with any storm, it brings with it destruction, but it also waters the fields; and, with the rain, falls the wisdom of the heavens. As with any storm, it will pass. The more violent the storm, the more quickly it will pass. I have, thank God, learned to face storms.

-Paulo Coelho-

Like the Flowing River

Been reading Paulo Coelho's book - like the flowing river, lately. I first got to know paulo coelho from a nice article he wrote which my fren sent me through emails - about Closing Cycles. His short stories always keep me inspired and to live in the present. Here's one of them:

The Funny Thing about Human Beings
A man asked my friend Jaime Cohen: 'What is the human being's funniest characteristic?'
Cohen said: 'Our contradictoriness. We are in such a hurry to grow up, and then we long for our lost childhood. We make ourselves ill earning money, and then spend all our money on getting well again. We think so much about the future that we neglect the present, and thus experience neither the present nor the future. We live as if we were never going to die, and die as if we had never lived.'
-paulo coelho-

and this is so true....