Something that multiplies when it is divided

Blogaverse (and all who would blog within it), it’s been a wee while since I shared anything. It’s time for that to change. Keeping schtum won’t get you owt. So what multiplies when it is divided?

No clear point to make or narrative path through this post. All I want to do is share with you some lovely words I’ve just read, in the hope that
they might spark something in anyone that might choose to read them.
Maybe the titular division and multiplication alluded to at the top of
this page might even happen.

I’ve blogged before that there are times
when absolutely the message that you need to hear, the words that you
need to read, will find you (a tip of the virtual hat, as ever, to the great Heather Bussing. If you don’t yet know Heather, please consider taking the time to sample some of her tweeted or embloggenated wisdom).

I’m midway through reading By the River Piedra I Sat Down and Wept, by Paulo Coelho As with all his books, for me it’s an odd mix of four parts life-changingly insightful to one part risibly underwritten. But as with all his books I’ve read so far, the life-changingly insightful wins out. It feels like what I need to read, today. Please give one of his books a go (and if you do, start with The Alchemist). If you end up wanting to throw it across the room, fair play to you. But his words could equally be just what you need to read at the moment you read them.

Here are four short, context-free quotations from River Piedra. I sincerely hope some of them might be what you hear at this moment, my friend. Here goes:

“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.”

“Love
is always new. Regardless of whether we love once, twice, or a dozen
times in our life, we always face a brand-new situation. […] The
moment we begin to seek love, love begins to seek us.”

“I closed my eyes and let the music flow through me, cleansing my soul of all fear and sin and reminding me that I am always better than I think and stronger than I believe.“

“Happiness is something that multiplies when it is divided.”

Footnote

• The image above (sourced via Wikimedia Commons) depicts an altar statue that figures in the narrative of Coelho’s book. I most assuredly have not found religion, nor ever will I.