A Wanderer's Home

Yesterday evening me and my friends were sprawled on the grassy grounds of the park near our house, making up jokes and looking at dogs and their owners, trying to spot good looking guys who don't have their hands around  good-looking girls. I was just soaking up the beauty of the park when I looked at an almost-old, almost-balding man in navy blue sweater and black pants walking through the park to I don't know where, and shouted "OMG, he looks like Paulo Coelho".

That is how badly I am obsessed with Coelho, now that I think random strangers in the park can be him. I love him. I am not that much of a reader which is funny because I write for a living. But I can never pass a Paulo Coelho book. Whenever I read him, it's like I know him, like he is me. I love when that happens. I am sure he is not like me, he is not a 19 year old girl. But just his words resonates with my thoughts and ideals so much. 

I think the first book of his that I loved was Brida. I was into witchcraft then and I wanted to read about magick since no one around me was into it, so I wouldn't feel alone. Brida is a book which many don't understand, many who never practised magick. Everyone loves the Alchemist, I love it too. But Brida will always be my favourite. 

Over the summer I read Like a flowing river... and fell in love with that phase. Wonderful book, filled with short stories and profound as always. Currently, I am reading Aleph which I was lucky to find in Chennai airport bookshop. Aleph is amazing, any spiritual person will love it. 

I know some people who would read Paulo Coelho's work and say' life-changing', 'exploring the unknown' or 'he taught me so many new things'. But I am not one of them. To me his words are very reassuring. That I am not the only one who thinks and feel that way. I am travelling alone, but this path is walked by many, like him. 

For me, this world can be overwhelming, there are things I don't understand. Sometimes I feel I don't belong, but I am very much needed. And through all this, I remain a wanderer. His words are familiar because I speak them everyday, to myself and others.  His books are a doorway for me, a doorway to a world I know, unlike the one I have to face. When I read his words, it's the only time I am not questioning and searching, I am at peace. Like being home. But can a self-proclaimed wanderer ever feel at home? In the journey of my own and others, I sometime find home. 

Image from Google

“None of us knows what might happen even the next minute, yet still we go forward. Because we trust. Because we have Faith.”
- Paulo Coelho, Brida