The Aleph

My lovely daughter has inherited her mother's voracious appetite for books along with the Evelyn Woodesque ability to burn through them at an epic pace. Our funds are limited these days, so we can't keep up with the cost of purchasing so many of them and have finally convinced her to visit the library. Yes, the library, that magical, mystical, magnificent place where they let you borrow books for free!

(Though as an author I do love it when people buy books...as this affords me (and all authors) the royalty monies needed to be able to write more books...)

There is a point to this...hang in there.

I went along this past weekend and selected two new books. One is a book on physics by David Deutsch called The Beginning of Infinity which is utterly fascinating, but heavy reading. Now let me preface this with the fact that Mr. Deutsch clearly and simply explains complex concepts without hurling huge and confusing mathematical equations at you. This is much appreciated as the math makes my head hurt, but the theories make my heart sing. Really I love the math, just not the numbers on a page, I am fascinated by the sacred geometry and the dimensional things the numbers represent.



But I digress, do forgive, the big message in the book so far is that we have the power to impact and enact change, that everything is mutable and that by merely observing and striving to explain the universe we are altering its very structure. Deutsch postulates that we are on the edge of something amazing that is a direct result of our unique drive as humans to explain and understand reality which in turn impacts reality. I hope this is making some sense, gentle reader. I suppose a little poetry might help...

"We are the music makers and we are the dreamers of the dream." Authur O'Shaughnessy

I am not a physicist, but I am a believer in our innate ability to create our reality. Life does not happen to us, we make it happen. Either by steering the ship, or opting to be a passenger, reality is a direct result of choice and reaction.

I also picked up a fiction novel written by the amazing Brazilian author Paulo Coelho that takes a more romantic approach to these heavier ideas. The book is called Aleph and an autobiographical work with themes similar to his masterpiece The Alchemist. The word 'aleph' has many, many meanings. For Cuelo, in this book, it is the universe, the everything, the vast and infinite place where the illusions of time and space disappear. A quick visit to Wiki will perhaps help to explain this thing that defies explanation. Cuelo must face this thing, the aleph, in order to progress spiritually and it is so far a fascinating read.

I have a quote from Aleph to share today that slapped me right across the forehead last night. I thought maybe it will speak to you too:

"When faced by any loss, there is no point in trying to recover what has been; it's best to take advantage of the large space that opens up before us and fill it with something new." Paulo Coelho

Holy schmokes.

I am going to sit with this idea today because it is so relevant to my life at this moment it feels like a little message in a bottle directly from the universe or perhaps, the aleph.

And just as a side note, it might be of interest to note that Paulo's first book though now a hugely popular international best seller, sold slowly at first and was dropped by the original publisher...

Heartfully yours.
Madge