The bird and the cage

November 10, 2010 by Paulo Coelho

From Maria’s diary:

Once upon a time, there was a bird. He was adorned with two perfect wings and with glossy, colourful, marvellous feathers.

One day, a woman saw this bird and fell in love with him.

She invited the bird to fly with her, and the two travelled across the sky in perfect harmony. She admired and venerated and celebrated that bird.

But then she thought: He might want to visit far-off mountains!

And she was afraid, afraid that she would never feel the same way about any other bird.

And she thought: “I’m going to set a trap. The next time the bird appears, he will never leave again.”

The bird, who was also in love, returned the following day, fell into the trap and was put in a cage.

She looked at the bird every day. There he was, the object of her passion and she showed him to her friends, who said: “Now you have everything you could possibly want.”

However, a strange transformation began to take place: now that she had the bird and no longer needed to woo him, she began to lose interest.

The bird, unable to fly and express the true meaning of his life, began to waste away and his feathers to lose their gloss; he grew ugly; and the woman no longer paid him any attention, except by feeding him and cleaning out his cage.

One day, the bird died. The woman felt terribly sad and spent all her time thinking about him. But she did not remember the cage, she thought only of the day when she had seen him for the first time, flying contentedly amongst the clouds.

If she had looked more deeply into herself, she would have realized that what had thrilled her about the bird was his freedom, the energy of his wings in motion, not his physical body.

Without the bird, her life too lost all meaning, and Death came knocking at her door.

“Why have you come?” she asked Death.

“So that you can fly once more with him across the sky,” Death replied.

“If you had allowed him to come and go, you would have loved and admired him evermore; alas, you now need me in order to find him again.”

In “Eleven Minutes”

Selfless Love

We know there are lot definitions for “Love”.  The tingling, warm feeling you get when you think of someone you cared so dearly.  But what is” Selfless Love “Have you ever thought about it.  In my definitions, selfless love means you love someone without expecting anything in return? You truly be happy for that person and let them be free to do whatever which makes them happy.

Do you think that’s possible? I think if you love someone you need to set them free from your expectations.  Then you might think what I’m I am gaining from that if I don’t expect anything in return. My dear friend, you gain pure happiness which will not depend on anyone or something someone has done. It’s totally yours and no one can steal that from you.

The problem in our lives is we take everything as a transaction. You give something and expect something in return. For everything in our life, we have a label marked what’s the value of it.

Do you know that we don’t even give a smile for free? If you smile with someone you expect a smile in return. If you don’t get that how annoying, you would feel. It’s a very pity world as we have made everything a transaction and we don’t know that we have put our keys to happiness is in others person pocket. 

What Is Wicca?

What Is Wicca?

Wicca is a Neo-Pagan, earth-based religion, where two main deities are observed: a God and a Goddess. The main principles of this religion are respect for Earth and the abidance to the Wiccan Rede (pronounced reed), a rule of conduct which prohibits Wiccans from harming others. Wicca is a very decentralized religion, with many Wiccans developing their own beliefs, rituals, and practices.

Witches

 by Paulo Coelho

“We women, when we’re searching for a meaning to our lives or for the path of knowledge, always identify with one of four classic archetypes.

“The Virgin (and I’m not speaking here of a sexual virgin) is the one whose search springs from her complete independence, and everything she learns is the fruit of her ability to face challenges alone.

“The Martyr finds her way to self-knowledge through pain, suffering, and surrender.

“The Saint finds her true reason for living in unconditional love and in her ability to give without asking anything in return.

“Finally, the Witch justifies her existence by going in search of complete and limitless pleasure.”

in Brida

“You came here because you saw a female face in the flames. That face is the face you see now in the mirror, so try to honor it. Don’t let yourself be weighed down by what other people think, because in a few years, in a few decades, or in a few centuries, that way of thinking will have changed. Live now what others will only live in the future.

“What do you want? You can’t want to be happy, because that’s too easy and too boring. You can’t want only to love, because that’s impossible. What do you want? You want to justify your life, to live it as intensely as possible. That is at once a trap and a source of ecstasy. Try to be alert to that danger and experience the joy and the adventure of being that woman who is beyond the image reflected in the mirror.”

in “The Witch of Portobello”