"The secret of life, though, is to fall seven times and to get up eight times." (Paulo Coelho)

Lately I have been addicted to two things: True Blood and Paulo Coelho. True Blood deserves an entry on its own… it got me through the flu over the past week. Paulo Coelho, a Brazilian writer, is getting me through life in general at the moment and has been hanging around me for a few years now… a bit like the uncle I never had.

I was first given The Alchemist by Coelho many years ago. I was about to embark on a year abroad to live in Japan… an apparent adventure. I ended up passing it on to someone I met on my journey because I felt they really needed to read it. That is the kind of writing he does. You just feel the need to share it with others. He writes about love, life, destiny, pain, surrendering, passion and so much more. Dee recently lent me Eleven Minutes. Well actually she didn’t lend it to me… I saw it in my scan of what can I borrow from her and what new magazines does she have that she may give me. Basically the plot of the book is that everyone lives their lives searching for that infamous “eleven minutes”. I shall let you use whatever imagination you’d like to define what you can do in that time.

Coelho’s writing is profoundly spiritual and makes me think about life in ways that provide insight and understanding. I did a bit of a google search and found so many inspiring and poetic quotes. Here is a random list of quotes I liked from his various books. His books are all amazing literature that have a story that everyone can relate to.

"Everything tells me that I am about to make a wrong decision, but making mistakes is just part of life. What does the world want of me? Does it want me to take no risks, to go back to where I came from because I didn't have the courage to say "yes" to life?"

"When I had nothing to lose, I had everything. When I stopped being who I am, I found myself."

"Waiting hurts. Forgetting hurts. But not knowing which decision to take is the worst of suffering."

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

When we meet someone and fall in love, we have a sense that the whole universe is on our side. And yet if something goes wrong, there is nothing left! How is it possible for the beauty that was there only minutes before to vanish so quickly? Life moves very fast. It rushes from heaven to hell in a matter of seconds."

"Stay mad, but behave like normal people. Run the risk of being different, but learn to do so without attracting attention."

"Life takes us by surprise and orders us to move toward the unknown -even when we don't want to and when we think we don't need to."

"Haters are confused admirers who can’t understand why everybody else likes you"

"Every blessing ignored becomes a curse."

"When we set out on the path, we always have a fairly clear idea of what we hope to find. Women are generally seeking their Soul Mate, and men looking for Power. Neither party is really interested in learning. They simply want to reach the thing they have set as their goal."

"No matter what he does, every person on earth plays a central role in the history of the world. And normally he doesn't know it."