El Laberinto de la Felicidad

"Water kills more people in the world than all the world’s wars and all bullets combined together." Doc Hendley

Doc Hendley was interviewed on The Story today, he works to bring people access to clean water. Amen.

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Francesc Miralles - He is the co-author of a book I fell in love with last month El Mejor Lugar Del Mundo es Aqui Mismo (The Best Place on Earth is Right Here) and now I am reading the other book he co-authored that my library has - El Laberinto de la Felicidad (The Labyrinth of Happiness). Once again, it is delightful! I smile while I read.

In today's reading the train conductor (it's metaphorical) instead of reviewing your ticket, reviews your life. The woman asks, "With what will you review my life?" The conductor pulls out a mirror.

The woman looks in the mirror and sees how she has changed (through the story) how her eyes shine like when she was a child. The conductor says that the face is a reflection of the soul and that she wasn't afraid to look there.

Then there is the beauty of language in itself. I've thought about this while writing poems or songs, there are certain words and themes keep coming up because they rhyme - free and we and me and see for example. In Spanish free is "libre" and that doesn't rhyme like "free" does. So I've wondered if I was fluent enough to create in Spanish what those new rhymes would be? I don't know, but I did come across this cool passage in the book today. It just does not work in English. It is

"El miedo es el medio (102)"


(Roughly - Fear is the way, but it's not the same).

THEN I get to a chapter titled "El Atraepajaros." Pajaros means birds. Atrae is something like attract. I read for context, so I skip words I don't know unless I think they are really important or that I am missing something.

Anyway, in this chapter they are talking about an espantapajaros (so bird scare or something). I read for a while but am not getting it so I go back, then I joyfully figure out they mean scarecrow and the atraepajaros is the opposite, like an attractcrow. The book says at first the scarecrow scares away the birds, because it signals someone who could kill them for eating the seeds. But with fear comes opportunity and the scarecrows begin to signal where one can find nourishment.

"Bajo nuestros miedos se encuentra el tesoro que andamos buscando (101)." -

Beneath our fears we find the treasure we are looking for.

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