Category: random

Land of mirrors

As reality shrinks into a dark abyss, I find myself in an empty void. I forget everything; my name, my age, the things around me. It is as if I was born again, into a world that I can create with my mind. And in my mind, I am a baby; an innocent bag of flesh, just waiting to conquer the world with the secret insanity that I held myself with. I am pampered, and I have my family hanging at my every babble and talk. As I stagger and begin to walk, my parents held my hand. Soon enough, I began to walk on my own, eat on my own, and I begin to not depend on my family on every little thing. I fell asleep on my own bed, thinking of how cool it would be when I grow up, unbound to the chains of my parents.

As I open my eyes, I see little children running around, without a care of the world. I join them, and I become part of their world. For a moment, I do not care about everything else. I only have these children, carefree and untouched by the sore reality of the flesh world. I stay with them for a while, and I laugh so loud that some people would call me indiscreet. Then in a blink of an eye, the little kids were gone. I find myself alone again, walking along the depths, not knowing where to go. What I do know is that I have to follow my bare feet, which were having cuts and bruises because of the small rocks I stumbled upon. The strength of my sole was tested, and though I winced and cried a time or two, I kept going, excited to learn what else is in the depths of my mind.

Then I found myself in a room full of mirrors; mirrors of different shapes, of different lengths. In each mirror, I looked different. In some mirrors I was tall, in some mirrors, I was small. In some I was a blur and some I looked as naked as a new born baby. I felt stripped, I felt judged, and I ran away as fast as I could. But I could never run from them and the more farther I ran more mirrors appeared in front of me. Then I stopped and looked at myself. As I studied my body, I saw that it was developing. My mind too, was more open, more developed in a way.

I was then put in a box, a box filled with facts and numbers and the proper grammar. I was taught this way and that, and my mind grew bigger and stronger. I had developed reasoning and judgement, and when I did I saw mirrors of other people, and I began to see them from a different view. I criticized most of them, some I envied. I wanted to be a part of their world, a part of their group. I tried my best to fit in the mirrors; I even changed my structure and the way I was. I found myself squeezing in, desperately trying to be the same with the plane of their life. But no matter how I tried, I was different. After a while, I got tired. I haven’t seen my reflection every since I was fascinated by trying to be one of the people. And so I searched and searched through the mirrors, but I could not find the reflection of me. I began to wonder what I looked like, if I looked like the people I criticized. I became mad, insane, driven into finding the mirror that held my face. I began to break every glass, and I stopped looking at other people. I got bruised and hurt, and I got scars everywhere. I was laughed at and judged, but I broke all the mirrors, knowing I had nothing to lose.  And then, at the end of everything, I saw a lone mirror, standing proud and unmoved. I stopped, as my sanity returned. My heart began pounding like a maniac on drugs, and I saw my reflection in the mirror. And I hated what I saw. I was disgusted as I saw a young woman, who looked at everywhere but herself. I realized that the more I envied other people, the more I wanted to be a part of their world I didn’t have time to create my world.

And so I started over. I picked up myself, and got my head on straight. I took a part of my mirror, so I won’t forget how I looked like.  As new mirrors replaced old ones, I began not to care about them. I put my head up, and began to walk on my own. I heard whispers and taunts and names that ridiculed me, I tried my best not to care. I became stronger and mightier, able to stand on my own two feet. I learned that the things I learned in the “box” could never be enough to be able to be on my own in the land of mirrors. And at one point, I saw my own reflection again. It was on another mirror, and as I checked the small piece from my own mirror, I saw it was an almost perfect match as how I saw myself. It was a brighter mirror, with more colours and it sparkled. I smiled and I twirled at my reflection, and I felt comfortable. Low and behold, the mirror became a man. He smiled at me, and made me laugh.  And he walked with me through life. And as I began to regain my consciousness, I saw a mirror in his eyes. It was the same reflection before he turned into a man, a reflection of who I was in his eyes. As reality pinched me back into its cruelty, I held in my heart the memory of the land of the mirrors.

eleven minutes by Paulo Coelho


Eleven minutes. 660 brief seconds. Moments of quick pleasure.

Reading the novel made me think about the current life style of people. Why we spend too much, for a luxury, for a “happiness” that would last only for a few moments. Why we try to look for happiness in mundane possessions, that people would actually believe to think that these temporary gifts of the earth would give them their life purpose. The novel spoke of profound and words that are rarely used in today’s novels. It was so complex, something that could only be understood if you make an effort to take a look at its depth.

The story spoke volumes, of dreams that were never reached, of the things people aim for but were not to brave to actually try and take the chance. It did not only speak of the main character Maria, but it spoke of the different people around the world, struggling to know who they are and what they exactly want from the life they are living in.

Maria merely played the part of a person that lives in everyone of us, a person who wants to really know what else life has to offer. We all want to just let life take control of us, yet we are afraid of losing things, and we are afraid of change.

The story reflected on Maria’s life, how she wanted to run away, how she wanted something new. We all could relate to that. We want to run away from the void that we got used to live in, that we yearn for something new to happen in our life. Most humans dread routine. So we want something new, something that makes our heart pound and make our brain think 10 times than what we were used to. Maria describes how she feels, in the most profound way. It is like, she is speaking with her soul pouring out onto the pages, as if you can feel her emotions rushing through your body as if they were yours.

Yes, the story may be about her becoming a prostitute, yet, aren’t we all? We are prostitutes to the society, giving them all we have, just for some temporary happiness that we might feel once we gain our asking price. The story goes on with the twists and turns of her life, how one man changed her forever, how she could not run away from love. We are like this too, we run away from something, something that may have hurt or scared us. Yet somewhere along the way we found ourselves facing this fear again, and this time, just maybe, we’re strong enough to withstand all that it has to throw at us.

The book surely is a must read for anyone. It may be a bore because of the long paragraphs and what not, but it is worth it. With this I shall end with a quote from the book, “The strongest love, is the love that demonstrates fragility.”