The Alchemist

I finished a little book called, "The Alchemist".  It is a fable about a boy in search of a treasure.  Along the way, though the twists and turns, the ups and downs of his journey, he learns to pay attention to the life around him and the heart inside of him.  The boy learns to follow the "omens" and listen to "the soul of the world".   

In one scene the boy meets The Alchemist in the desert as he is on his way to find his "treasure".  

The boy says, "My heart is a traitor." "It doesn't want me to go on."

"That makes sense", the Alchemist answered.  "Naturally it's afraid that, in pursing your dream, you might lose everything you own."

"Well, then, why should I listen to my heart?"

"Because you will never again be able to keep it quiet.  Even if you pretend not to have heard what it tells you, it will always be there inside you repeating to you what your thinking about life and about the world." (130)

This conversation captivates me as I think about how in my own life the Holy Spirit speaks through the language of my heart.   I am learning how to listen to my heart, just like the the boy in the story, and find that it often takes great focus and discipline.  What has the possibility of coming so naturally often doesn't.  I have to uncover this heart of mine from beneath the layers "shoulds" "have-to's" and "oughts" created by other parts of me. 

 The Holy Spirit's gentle long-suffering commitment stays with us in our listening and non-listening days.  This is GRACE.  Imagine how gleeful God gets when we recognize the language of our hearts again.  Imagine who our very heart enlarges and grows as we pay attention to it's LIFE within us.  When we make room for it's LIFE I wonder what kind of LIFE might become the overflow?   I'm aware of my own fear of walking into my "listening" because it might ask me (gently) to lose the things I "love" the most.  This growing into grace isn't always the most fun thing in the world but it is the kind of adventure well worth embarking on regardless of the risks of "losing".

Later on the Alchemist says to the boy, "Tell your heart that the fear of suffering is worse than suffering itself.  And that no heart has ever suffered when it goes in search of its dream because every second of the search is a second's encounter with God and with eternity." (132)

The boy responds to The Alchemist, "When I had been truly searching for my treasure, I've discovered things along the way that I never would have seen had I not had the courage to try things that seemed impossible for a shepherd to achieve." (132)

I just wonder what kinds of communities could be created if more of us learned to listen the LIFE around us and in us.  What if a group of people decided to listen to the life around them?I think our hearts would be widened in compassion for the people and places we already interact with.  What if we decided to listen to the hearts inside of us?  I imagine many of us would find that some of the things we are pressing on towards are not really the desires of our heart.  If we learned to listen to the life around us and the hearts inside of us, I think we'd create a culture that our western world would look to in both disgust and wonder.  I'm still very much an apprentice to this listening life.  What I've begun to experience convinces me the listening life is the only way to LIFE.  My hunch is that if a people learned to listen together, we might become a more authentic kind of people together in and for our world.