My Everyday Blog

T he most romantic thing in airport. We make our way to the other terminal. I enter a florist’s and buy a dozen roses. We reach the arrivals gate, which is crowded with people waiting for friends and relatives arriving from far-flung places. “ Does anyone here understand English?” I shout. People look startled, doubtless because of the three burly men with me. “ Does anyone speak English?” A few hands are raised. I show them the bouquet of roses. “ A young woman whom I love very much will be arriving shortly. I need eleven volunteers to help me give her these flowers.” Eleven volunteers immediately appear by my side. We form a queue. Hilal comes out of the main door, sees me, smiles, and heads straight for me. One by one the volunteers hand her the roses. She looks half confused and half happy. When she finally reaches me, I hand her the twelfth rose and fold her in the warmest of embraces. “ Aren’t you going to tell me you love me?” she asks, trying to keep co...

A conversation about River and Love! Walking alongside a river created by the thaw, a remote village in Siberia “ In Novosibirsk, you made me forgive you, and I did. Now I’m asking you for a favor: tell me that you love me.” I take her hand. We are both gazing at the river. “ Silence is also an answer,” she says. I put my arms around her, so that her head is resting on my shoulder. “ I love you,” I tell her. “I love you because all the loves in the world are like different rivers flowing into the same lake, where they meet and are transformed into a single love that becomes rain and blesses the earth. “ I love you like a river that creates the right conditions for trees and bushes and flowers to flourish along its banks. I love you like a river that gives water to the thirsty and takes people where they want to go. “ I love you like a river that understands that it must learn to flow differently over waterfalls and to r...

Forgiveness from the novel A leph by P a ulo Coelho Published by Harper Collins Remember the Aleph. Remember what you felt at that moment. Try to bring into this sacred place something that you don’t know but that is there in your heart. If necessary, think of a favorite symphony and let it guide you to where you need to go. That’s all that matters now. Words, explanations, and questions won’t help; they’ll only confuse something that is already quite complex enough. Forgive me, but let that forgiveness come from the depths of your soul, the same soul that passes from one body to another and learns as it travels through nonexistent time and infinite space. We can never wound the soul, just as we can never wound God, but we can become imprisoned by our memories, and that makes our lives wretched even when we have everything we need in order to be happy. If only we could be entirely here, as if we had just woken up on planet Earth and found our...