Revisiting Maria

Maria is the protagonist of Paulo Coelho's Eleven Minutes. It is Coelho's second book that I fell in love with, the first was The Alchemist. Last weekend I've unearthed my copy and started re-reading it. I've read the book a lot of times before, but last weekend was the first in over two years. I've felt almost the same way when I started reading it for the first time seven years ago. (Operative word is almost, because nothing beats the first time that you read a book) Memories came like an avalanche, it was like remembering a situation that happened ages ago, just reading the first chapter, and I have remembered everything quite vividly. I never realized how much I missed Maria. 

Here are some quotes from the book which I think applies to how I feel at this very moment:

“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?” 

“At every moment of our lives, we all have one foot in a fairy tale and the other in the abyss.” 

“You can either be a victim of the world or an adventurer in search of treasure. It all depends on how you view your life.” 

“Sometimes life is very mean: a person can spend days, weeks, months and years without feeling new. Then, when a door opens - a positive avalanche pours in. One moment, you have nothing, the next, you have more than you can cope with.”

“Life moves very fast. It rushes us from heaven to hell in a matter of seconds.” 

“The true experience of freedom: having the most important thing in the world without owning it.” 

I am (yet again) in a situation where I feel like I am overwhelmed with everything that's happening and not happening in my life. A woman who is almost 30, but still lost in the abyss of the ironies of this world. The feeling that everyday and everything is quite the same, but looking back you'll realized how much times have changed and how much it changed you. I hope, just like Maria I'll be able to see the light at the end of what seems like an unending tunnel.