But the crystal merchant had no choice. He had lived thirty years of his life buying and selling crystal pieces, and now it was too late to do anything else.
People talk a lot about omens, thought the shepherd. But they really don't know what they're saying. Just as I hadn't realized that for so many years I had been speaking a language without words to my sheep.
He still had some doubts about the decision he had made. But he was able to understand one thing: making a decision was only the beginning of things. When someone makes a decision, he is really diving into a strong current that will carry him to places he had never dreamed of when he first made the decision.
The closer one gets to realizing his Personal Legend, the more that Personal Legend becomes his true reason for being, thought the boy.
"That's the principle that governs all things," he said. "In alchemy, it's called the Soul of the World. When you want something with all your heart, that's when you are closest to the Soul of the World. It's always a positive force." He also said that this was not just a human gift, that everything on the face of the earth had a soul, whether mineral, vegetable, or animal-or even just a simple thought. "Everything on earth is being continuously transformed, because the earth is alive. . . and it has a soul. We are part of that soul, so we rarely recognize that it is working for us. But in the crystal shop you probably realized that even the glasses were collaborating in your success.
"Because I don't live in either my past or my future. I'm interested only in the present. If you can concentrate always on the present, you'll be a happy man. You'll see that there is life in the desert, that there are stars in the heavens, and that tribesmen fight because they are part of the human race. Life will be a party for you, a grand festival, because life is the moment we're living right now.'
"Why are you called the alchemist?" 66 "Because that's what I am." "And what went wrong when other alchemists tried to make gold and were unable to do so?" "They were looking only for gold," his companion 66 answered. "They were seeking the treasure of their Personal Legend, without wanting actually to live out the Personal Legend."
"Well, then, why should I listen to my heart?" 66 "Because you will never again be able to keep it quiet. Even if you pretend not to have heard what it tells you, 'no, it will always be there inside you, repeating to you what 66 you're thinking about life and about the world.
"Every second of the search is an encounter with God," the boy told his heart. "When I have been truly 66 searching for my treasure, every day has been luminous, because I've known that every hour was a part of the dream that I would find it. When I have been truly searching for my treasure, I've discovered things along the that I never would have seen had I not had the way courage to try things that seemed impossible for a shepherd to achieve." 66