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Detail and I do not get along. This blog is a perfect example: I am writing this at the last minute, because my SODDING email history got entirely wiped last week– and then for some reason the new improved version keeps rejecting mail. So I never got the email regarding this blog until a week later than I should have, and only then because I rang my publicist about something else entirely.
I caught up with an old mate of mine last night. Back in my early twenties – which is beginning to feel like a millennium ago – we did a lot of time on horses together, drinking in the local, and listening to way too much Garth Brooks. Life has changed a lot for us both since then. I have a divorce behind me, and have become a step mother to two teenage children in my new relationship. I’ve also walked a fair way, and discovered I quite like doing it.
I picked up ‘The Alchemist’ by Paulo Coehlo this week. I can remember looking at it years ago, and feeling relatively unmoved by it; just another new age fable, I thought.
But this time, it felt as if the book was written just for me. The character followed the same geographic path I once did – through Spain, into Morocco, and across the Sahara. The decisions he had to make, and lessons he learned along the way, mirrored much of my own experience. I related to every step of his journey, both internal and external. Even the description of the desert wind had me nodding emphatically and muttering amazed agreement, much to my two beagles’ amusement. Continue reading
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