Story: 11. ) Gift of a Book

 from . . . A BOOK IS LIKE A SACRED ISLE . . . 

The rose opens…powered by light

Infused…and energized…the gift of pages

Releases a fragrant life...

Taken out of heart…to give from itself…its love

           Gift of a Book

    What better gift than a book? It can change a life for good. What better personal outlay or stretch of the wallet, than that for a book for the stretching of something greater, personal insides. It is a wise investment for a more expansive future. Untold wealth lies in the power of a book. Conveying ideas that can spark a chain of thought linking synchronizing incidents in our lives, a book can launch one upon a new journey, a new venture into previously unexplored territory.

   I didn’t know the dynamic reality of this until a lovely French girl, who had stayed with us for a few weekends gave my son a parting gift. She was on a working holiday and wanting to continue her ‘overseas experience,’ in other lands; but she had wanted to give something of herself to him before she left; and it was in a book.

   The novel she gave him had obviously profoundly moved her; there was a long handwritten message on the flyleaf. My son enjoyed the book, and lent it to me to read when he was finished with it. He could see I was strangely attracted to it; and no less so than by her message. She said it was ‘her favourite book,’ and ‘like her Bible.’ I was intrigued. When I picked it up it fell open where there was a folded piece of paper, a printed form---a “Renewal of Motor Vehicle Licence” form---and in the section (appropriately) titled “Change of Address” there was a quote from the book filling the lines written in my son’s beautiful handwriting. ‘This natural world is only an image and a copy of paradise. The existence of this world is simply a guarantee that there exists a world that is perfect. God created the world so that through its visible objects, men could understand his spiritual teachings and marvels of his wisdom.’

   This book The Alchemist, by Paulo Coelho, was a worldwide bestseller in the late 80’s and through the 90’s. This particular edition, hardcover, published by HarperCollins Publishers Inc., New York, 1998, is still on bookshop shelves or still in print in 2015.

   It was a gentle fable; reminiscent of Antoine de Saint-Exupery’s meaningful tale of The Little Prince; and it was this likeness that made me very much attracted to it.

   I read it avidly, and was impressed. But, overall, my greatest impression was that the wisdom and insight it taught was that which had been outgrown: namely, the wellbeing of the soul focusing on its material gain. It was “an entrepreneurial tale of universal wisdom we can apply to the business of our own lives;” (Spencer Johnson, M.D.)…and, as such, it was brilliant. Yet this wise and beautiful book went ‘so far,’ but no further. And I knew there was more; much ‘more.’   

  Very ‘quickly’ The Alchemist worked its magic within and awakened something; it spurred me onward, to go through with what was already waiting and bursting for expression. It was a timely and most significant gift. The book became for me a springboard, the needed impetus to rise above one ‘good,’ for another ‘good;’ to move from one level of understanding, on to the next: from soul, to what was beyond. I was fired to write a book of my own, and filled with enthusiasm to impart through a simple story another way of seeing and living.

  Throughout our lives we regularly have to think about buying, or making loved ones and others gifts. There are anniversaries of all kinds to celebrate, and the acknowledgements of our regards, the marking of various events; and the landmarks in people’s lives, to help make more significant and understood. There are endless reasons for giving. Maybe the giving of a book, over and against an inanimate object could convey more, or be a more thoughtful, living thing. Books have life.

  Not always is a reason needed for the giving of a gift. Spontaneous ‘brainwaves’ in our desire to reach people could make us think along new lines, and from out of the things we ourselves read in a much enjoyed book inspire us to share what we have found with our friends as we pass the book on, or buy them their own copy.

   Perhaps we don’t fully realize how much we can enthuse or influence, or add to others lives with the gift of a book; we do not know how far reaching our loving actions are, but that they are effectual is certain; for love and truth have a life of their own. And, more than anything else, the joy is all the more ours, and made our gift, knowing that we have extended ourselves; thought a bit further, and given a part of ourselves from out of our innermost being, where life is. Creative ideas are ready to flow unstinted when we have the good and wellbeing of another in our hearts and minds.  …Books change lives. So they are, truly, a gift! 

                                                      

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