the alchemist.

have you ever read Paulo Coelho's The Alchemist? truly one of my favorite books. it's one of those books that I hope to read to my future kids. it's the story of a young man who gives up everything he knows as a shepherd to follow a dream of finding treasure buried at the base of great pyramids. after some time of sitting with this dream he is confronted with the idea that this is his "personal legend." everyone is presented with their personal legend in some way or another and many decide to secure a foundation for themselves before getting started just to never pursue the life that they want. others dream about it, but never get to doing pursing their personal legend as a means to give them hope and something to look forward to. as you could guess, his journey is not so straight forward, and after encountering multiple setbacks he is finally on his way to the pyramids for his treasure. among other things, the young man finds an alchemist who teaches him to commune with the world. after meeting his new friend our protagonist finds himself in many dangerous situations where he has to has to destroy an army's camp with the wind to save his life. I know I skipped a few steps there, but in all he communes with God himself and in the process destroys the army camp and is allowed to live. he eventually makes it to the pyramids where he is beaten and robbed of his belongs before coming to the realization that his treasure was where he had always been, in the fields of his shepherding days. while he never really had to leave to find the treasure he sought, he never would have seen the pyramids if he had not pursued his personal legend. all praise to the Most High.