By the river Piedra, I sat down and wept

Last week, I read this fabulous book Paulo Chelho.

It is a story of a lady, who is completing her studies in some small town. She suddenly gets a letter from her childhood friend, inviting her to attend a lecture to be held by him. The lady recollects the joys of her childhood and the goes to meet the guy.

The guy is now a student of a seminary. He's preaching about the feminie side of the God. He's travelled a lot and learnt a lot. He's invited the lady as he is and he has been in love with her from the childhood.

The story is about the stay of the girl with the guy for a week, over his lecture series and how she progresses from the cynic that she is to a child. A child, which can believe in magic and hope. Then, she progresses to an adult, who can accept that Love is possible in this world. And that Love need not be a hinderance to the goal of life, but, it can be a very potent support on the path to the destiny.

I am in the process of still collating the best quotes... Until then, have a look at some of the best!

Buy the book, India Only

You have to take risks. We will only understand the miracles of life fully when we allow the unexpected to happen. - Him I could have.What does this phrase mean? At any given moment in our lives, there are certain things that could have heppened but, didn't. The magic moments go unrecognized, and then suddenly, the hand of destiny changes everything. If we are not reborn - if we cannot learn to look at life with the innocence and enthusiasm of childhood - it makes no sense to go on living. - Him In real life, love has to be possible. Even if it is not returned right away, love can only survive when the hope exists that you will be able to win over the person you desire. But love is much like a dam; if you allow a tiny crack to form through which only a trickle of water can pass, that trickle will quickly bring down the whole structure and soon no one will be able to control the force of the current. For when those walls come down, then, love takes over, and it no longer matters what is possible and impossible; it doesn't even matter whether we can keep the loved one at our side. To love is to lose control. Love is like a trap. When it appears, we see only light, not its shadows. "But, I am going to fight for love," he continued. "There are some things in life that are worth fighting for to the end." I was speechless. "You are worth it," he said. I was tired of playng the child and acting the way many of my friends did - the ones who were afraid that love is impossible without even knowing what love is. If I stayed like that I would miss out on everything good that these few days with him might offer. The universe always helps us fight for our dreams no matter how foolish they may be. Our dreams are our own, and only we know the effort required to keep them alive. -Him This was silence that spoke for itself. A silence that said we no longer needed to explain things to each other. I saw the well in lamp-light, with the bottle of wine and two glasses on its walls. A couple of sweethearts must have been here, I think. Silent, allowing their hearts to speak to each other. And after their hearts had said all they had to say, they began to share the great mysteries. ..When we were quiet with each other, I was able to see how close I felt to him. Neither of us had said anything. Love doesn't need to be discussed; it had its own voice and speaks for itself. That night, by the well, the silence had allowed our hearts to approach each other and get to know each other better. My heart had listened closely to what his had said, and now it was content. But 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. Love can consign us to hell or to paradise, but it always takes us somewhere. We simply have to accept it, because it is what nourishes our existence. If we reject it, we die of hunger, because we lack courage to stretch out a hand and pluck the fruit from the branches of the tree of life. We have to take love where we find it, even if it means hours, days, weeks of disappointments and sadness. Love never comes just a little at a time, I thought, as I watched him, absorbed in contemplation of the Virgin. The previous day, the world had made sense, even without love's presence. But now we needed each other in order to see the true brilliance of things. "You shouldn't have asked," I said. "Love doesn't ask many questions, because if we stop to think we become fearful. It's an inexplicable fear; it's difficult even to describe it. Maybe it's the fear of being scorned, of not being accepted, or of breaking the spell. It's ridiculous, but that's the way it is. That's wy you don't ask-you act. As you've said many times, you have to take risks." Wait. This was the first lesson I learned about love. The day drags along, you make thousands of plans, you imagine every possible conversation, you promise to change your behaviour in certain ways - and you feel more and more anxious until your loved one arrives. But by then, you don't know what to say. The hours of waiting have been transformed into tension, the tension has become fear, and the fear makes you embrassed about showing affection. But he wasn't listening. He had stood, siezed my hair in his hands and was kissing me. I clutched at his hair, too, and squeezed him with all my strength, biting his lips and feeling his tongue move in my mouth. This was the kiss I had waited for so long - a kiss born by the river of our childhood, when we didn't yet know what love meant. A kiss that had been suspended in the air as we grew, that had traveled in the world in the sovenier of a medal, and that had remained hidden behind piles of books. A kiss that had been lost and now was found. In the moment of that kiss were years of searching, disillusionment and impossible dreams. I kissed him hard. The few people in the bar must have been thinking that all they were seeing was just a kiss. They didn't know that this kiss stood for my whole life - and his life, as well. The life of anyone who has waited, dreamed and searched for thier true path. The moment of that kiss contained every happy moment I had ever lived. "I always look at the well there in the plaza. And I thil to myself that before, no one knew where there was water. Then Sait Savin decided to dig and found it. If he hadn't done that, this village would be down here by the river." "But what does that have to do with love?" I asked "That well bought many people here, with thir hopes and dreams and conflicts. Someone dared to look for water, water was found, and people gathered whre it flowed. I think that when we look for love courageously, it reveals itself, and we wind up attracting even more love. If one person really wants us, everyone does. But, if we're alone, we become even more alone. Life is strange." "Have you ever heard of the book called the I Ching?" I asked her. "No, I haven't." "It says that a city can be moved but not a well. It's around the well that lovers find each other, satisfy their thirst, build homes, and raise their children. But if one of them decides to leave, the well cannot go with them. Love remains there, abandoned - even though it is filled with the same pure water as before."