Answered yet left wondering
The Alchemist is a quaint book. In less than 200 pages Paulo Coelho manages to narrate the journey of a wise shepherd to treasure while exploring the science and art of alchemy. Making the reader sufficiently familiar with it and at that same time never too burdened with knowledge. It perfectly blends reality with fantasy and romance. The complexity of this book arises from its simplicity. Somehow it manages to leave you puzzled but also more sorted. It leaves lots of questions unanswered, but it gives you answers to greater questions. Every single line opens doorways to deeper philosophies and rarer emotions. Every word leaves the reader more mesmerized and dazed. This particular line strikes me the most.
“But the desert is so huge, and the horizons so distant, that they make a person feel small, and as if he should remain silent.”
It is so true that when we are surrounded by the power of nature, we often find ourselves bereft of all words as if anything we would say would sound too stupid or too naïve - as if no praise is great enough. It is through the silence that we give the gigantic mountains, the ever-flowing rivers, the vast skies and the continuous oceans the respect they deserve.
I generally hate to run out of words, as if somehow it makes me weak and vulnerable. But these days I just find myself yearning to stand before a mountain and just be speechless.