My Own Happiness Project

My Own Happiness Project
because happiness begins inside and flows out...

20080319

cafe archive: excerpt of fifth mountain...

originally posted on Cafe Philosoffee 2007-05-10

excerpt from THE FIFTH MOUNTAIN
by PAULO COELHO
ELIJAH LOOKED AT AKBAR below. Yes, God sometimes could be very stern, but never beyond a person's capacity: the boy was unaware that they were sitting where Elijah had received an angel of the Lord and learned how to bring him back from the dead.

"Are you going to miss me?" Elijah asked.

"You told me that sadness disappears if we press ahead. There's still much to do to leave Akbar as beautiful as my mother deserves. She walks in the streets."

"Come back to this place when you have need of me. And look towards Jerusalem: I sahll be there, seeking to give meaning to my name, Liberation. Our hearts are linked forever."

"Was that why you brought me to the top of the Fifth Mountain? So I could see Israel?"

"So you could see the valley, the city, the other mountains, the rocks and clouds. The Lord often has his prophets climb mountains to converse with Him. I laways wondered why He did that, and now I know the answer: when we are on high, we can see everything else as small."


"Our glory and our sadness lose their importance. Whatever we conquered or lost remains there below. From the heights of the mountains, you see how large the world is, and how wide its horizons."

The boy looked about him. From the top of the Fifth Mountain, he could smell the sea that bathed the beaches of Tyre. And he could hear the desert wind that blew from Egypt.

"Someday I'll govern Akbar," he told Elijah. "Iknow what's big. But I also know every corner of the city. I know what needs to be changed."

"Then change it. Don't let things remain idle."

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