Today’s supposed to be my third day of school, but our teacher in structural class decided to cancel our class because he had a lot of work to do.

Hmm…time to get the much-deserved haircut I’ve been planning for ages. I’ve been planning to have my hair trimmed but I always hesitated; I couldn’t decide on where to have it done! I want to be loyal to one stylist but I haven’t encountered one who has impressed me so far, or at least I have built a rapport with. Well, I was never the chatty customer anyway.

Anyway, I might try Bench Fix salon…my friend recommended it. I never felt comfortable in girly-girly salons anyway. Seems like the right type of salon for me.

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I just finished reading Paulo Coelho’s By the River Piedra, I Sat Down and Wept, and I want to reread it again. I like the book; it speaks of love, self-discovery, spirituality and universal truths. It focuses on two childhood sweethearts who are reunited after eleven years. The girl has resigned herself to a solid, straight path to life while the other, a spiritual leader, has been traveling the road less traveled. Anyway, the story focuses on the couple of days they spent in the French Pyrenees.

I also like Paulo Coelho and his approach to writing. He never dwells on the identity of his characters; rather, he uses the actions of his characters to illustrate the ‘truths’ he shares with the reader. It’s almost like reading a fable. Aside from this, all his books have journey as a theme…I wonder why. Anyway, I’ve always dreamed of being a traveler, and I would like to look at life as a journey.

I would like to share an excerpt from this book. In this part, Pilar’s childhood friend is sharing the exercise of the Other to Pilar.

MAN RUNS INTO an old friend who had somehow never been able to make it in life. “I should give him some money,” he thinks. But instead he learns that his old friend has grown rich and is actually seeking him out to repay the debts he had run up over the years.

They go to a bar they used to frequent together, and the friend buys drinks for everyone there. When they ask him how he became so successful, he answers that until only a few days ago, he had been living the role of the “Other.”

“What is the Other?” they ask.

“The Other is the one who taught me what I should be like, but not what I am. The Other believes that it is our obligation to spend our entire life thinking about how to get our hands on as much money as possible so that we will not die of hunger when we are old. So we think so much about money and our plans for acquiring it that we discover we are alive only when our days on earth are practically done. And then it’s too late.”

“And you? Who are you?”

“I am just like everyone else who listens to their heart; a person who is enchanted by the mystery of life. Who is open to miracles, who experiences joy and enthusiasm for what they do. It’s just that the Other, afraid of disappointment, kept me from taking action.”

“But there is suffering in life,” one of the listeners said.

“And there are defeats. No one can avoid them. But it’s better to lose some of the battles in the struggle for your dreams than to be defeated without ever even knowing what you’re fighting for.”

“That’s it?” another listener asked.

“Yes, that’s it. When I learned this, I resolved to become the person I had always wanted to be. The Other stood there in the corner of my room, watching me, but I will never let the Other into myself again-even though it has already tried to frighten me, warning me that it’s risky not to think about the future.”

“From the moment that I ousted the Other from my life, the Divine Energy began to perform its miracles.”