09 December 2004

Pursuing My Personal Legend

Three months ago I ‘physically’ left my hometown, resigned from my relatively distinguished post in our office, and bid goodbye to my dear family and close friends. I said to myself I must miss my hometown, family, and friends so that I may not miss other wonderful opportunities and beautiful things the world is offering for young dreamers like me. Indeed, I have to go; I also have to pursue my ‘personal legend’. Life is, after all, about letting go and letting God.

Leaving the Philippines, a country that could be characterized as a sentimentalist ‘society of families’, is truly heartfelt. Yet, I hope that the teardrops of my loved ones were tears of joy. I would like to share with them this beautiful Prologue from Paulo Coelho’s The Alchemist:
The Alchemist picked up a book that someone in
the caravan had brought. Leafing through the pages,
he found a story about Narcissus.

The alchemist knew the legend of Narcissus, a youth
who daily knelt beside a lake to contemplate his own beauty.
He was so fascinated by himself that, one morning, he fell
into the lake and drowned. At the spot where he fell, a flower
was born, which was called the narcissus.

But this was not how the author of the book ended the
story.

He said that when Narcissus died, the Goddesses of the
Forest appeared and found the lake, which had been fresh
water, transformed into a lake of salty tears.
"Why do you weep?" the Goddesses asked.
"I weep for Narcissus," the lake replied.
"Ah, it is no surprise that you weep for Narcissus," they
said, "for though we always pursued him in the forest, you
alone could contemplate his beauty close at hand."
"But..... was Narcissus beautiful?" the lake asked.
"Who better than you to know that?" the Goddesses said
in wonder, "After all, it was by your banks that he knelt each
day to contemplate himself!!"

The lake was silent for some time.

Finally it said:
"I weep for Narcissus, but I never noticed that Narcissus
was beautiful. I weep because, each time he knelt beside my
banks, I could see, in the depths of his eyes, my own beauty
reflected."

"What a lovely story," the alchemist thought.
As I’m giving a good game in pursuit of my personal legend, I do hope that my family and friends – people dearest to my heart whose existence are truly part of my nurturing – could see in the depths of my eyes, my heart, and my spirit their own beauty reflected.

6 comments:

Anonymous said...

If there is A Good Game, there is also A Bad Game.

I agree that life indeed is also a game but what if most of time you lose the game?

And you lose not because you didnt play well or you are not capable of playing well but because there are circumstances, structural or conjunctural in nature that caused you to lose the game.

As the old saying goes 'men make history, but not according to their own choosing'if these men want to play the game but not according to 'their own choosing of the play' will they succeed on playing that game? Or what will happen just like the majority of men are ending up a BAD Game.

Maybe if im doing my own blog i will name it 'For love of the Game'

GAD

Anonymous said...

You are indeed a beautiful person Bonn because you have a good heart. Merry Christmas-)

Jean-)

Anonymous said...

one can make another person feel beautiful not just by saying it, but how one treats that person, how one values that person. but if that person is not being treated 'beautifully' by another person, than one should not take heart for world consists of thousands of other persons who would treat that person 'beautifully'. in other words, this is what a good game is all about, to NOT make 'a bad game' a problem. one might be in a bad game where one has no control over it, at first...but overtime, as one is familiar with the 'space', 'entities', and 'ways' in the game, believe it or not, one can take over the game. the key words are 'no fear'. fear is what stopping us from taking that first step.

Anonymous said...

so, my good friend has been a blogger himself =)

nice diary you got here. keep it up.

Anonymous said...

You don't know till you try. Live your dream. You may lose 90 percent of the time but when you finally win it will be worth every loss

Unknown said...

What is your Personal Legend then? You had the courage to leave your home town in hope of finding what?