Alone on the Road

(It’s a story about life. It has been originally written by Paulo Coelho in his book ‘Like the Flowing River’. I have made minute changes.)

Life is like a great bicycle race, whose aim is to fulfill our personal legend, which, according to the ancient alchemists, is our true mission on the earth.

We all set off together; sharing friendship & enthusiasm; but as the race progresses; we come about the real challenges: tiredness, boredom, doubts about our own capabilities. We notice that a few friends, in their hearts, have already given up. They are still cycling only because they can’t stop in the middle of the road. There are more & more of them, pedaling along with support vehicle- also known as the “routine”- talking amongst themselves, fulfilling their obligations, but oblivious to the beauties & challenges of the road.

We eventually leave them behind us, then coming face to face to the loneliness & unfamiliar bends of the road, and mechanical problems with our bicycle. After a few falls, realizing no one at hand to help, we begin to ask ourselves, if it’s really worth all the effort.

Yes, it is. It’s a question of not giving up. Father Allen Jones says that in order to overcome these obstacles we need four invisible forces with ourselves: love, death, power & time.

We must love others because we ourselves are loved by God.

We must have an awareness of death in order to fully understand life.

We must struggle in order to grow, but without allowing to be deceived by the power that is gained through that struggle, because we know that such power is worthless.

Finally, we must accept that despite our soul being eternal, is at this moment caught in the web of time, with all its opportunities & limitations.

Therefore, on our solitary bicycle race, we must behave as if time existed & do everything to value each second of our time, to rest whenever necessary, but to keep cycling towards the divine light, and not to put off by any moments of anxiety.

These four forces can’t be treated as problems to be solved, because they are beyond anyone’s limits. Therefore, we must accept them & let them teach us, what we need to learn.

We live in a universe that is at once vast enough to enclose us but at the same time small enough to fit in our hearts! In the soul of human is the soul of the world, the silence of wisdom. As we pedal towards our goals, we must ask ourselves” What is beautiful about today? ” The sun may be shining, but if it happens to be raining, always remember that the dark clouds will soon have disappeared. The clouds may disappear but the sun remains the same, and never goes away. In moments of loneliness, we must remember this.

When things get hard, let us not forget that- independent of race, color, social situation, belief or culture- everyone has experienced the same. A lovely prayer written by the Egyptian Sufi master Dhu ‘l-Nun (A.D. 861) neatly sums up the attitude one needs to adopt at such times:

O God, when I listen to voices of animals, to the sounds of the trees, the murmur of water, the singing of birds, to the rushing of the wind or to the rumble of thunder, I see in them the evidence of Your Unity; I feel that supreme power , supreme wisdom, supreme knowledge, supreme justice.

O God, I also recognize you in the difficulties I am experiencing now. God, let your satisfaction be my satisfaction, and let me be Your joy, the joy that a father takes in his child. And let me remember you with calmness & determination even when it is hard to say- I love you.