Book Reads 📚: By the River Piedra I Sat Down and Wept (Paulo Coelho)

November 18, 2024


Paulo Coelho is one of those authors that I truly love. My first encounter with his work was The Alchemist. I have also read some of his other works, such as The Valkyries and Brida. Whenever I read Paulo Coelho's books, they transport me to a different mindset, making me reflect on life in profound ways.  This was exactly what happened to me when I read his book, By the River Piedra I Sat Down and Wept. It had been a while since I last read a book by him, so it was refreshing to discover that I still resonated the same way with this novel. The story follows a couple who are searching for their life direction, making a choice between the call to the spiritual path or to the normal life... or maybe they can do both?

Over several weeks, I read and absorbed the book. Since reading a Coelho novel last, I have embarked on my own spiritual journey so somehow I connected to the book in a deeper way. It was comforting to realize that even though I'm not practicing a specific religion, the teachings stated in the book still resonated with the core values that I have in life.

Here are some of the notes that I highlighted from the book (thanks to this Kindle feature for making this so easy to do 😉).

📝 "The heart decides, and what it decides is all that really matters."

I see myself as a very logical person (which is further enhanced in my line of work 🧩).  I feel like humans do stupid things when logic is thrown out of the window due to emotions. I know this is what makes us human, but yeah I just recognize the power that the heart has. If it decides on something, that's it. No more questions asked. 😅

📝 "Seek to live. Remembrance is for the old."

I would also describe myself as a person who is quite nostalgic; One proof of that is I still have a box of my childhood memorabilia at the bottom of my cabinet. From time to time (most especially during spring cleaning 🧹), I stumble upon that box and I relish opening it up to look at the items I used to play with when I was younger. 

Another proof is the overall driving force behind this blog itself. My sense of nostalgia really shows on how I linger on travel memories as I go back to them and flesh out our trip details on each post (which by the way I'm so behind with my backlog 🥲). Don't get me wrong, I enjoy this process. But the downside of this is that I still get caught up in those past memories and forget to focus on the present. I feel a tinge of longing because I wanted to relive those moments again. However, this statement in the book is telling me to live the moment. It's okay to look back in the past... just don't get stuck in there. Which means I need to book my tickets for another trip! 🤣

📝 "Pitiful is the person who is afraid of taking risks. Perhaps this person will never be disappointed or disillusioned. Perhaps she won't suffer the way people do when they have a dream to follow. But when that person looks back—and at some point, everyone looks back—she will hear her heart saying, 'What have you done with the miracles that God planted in your days? What have you done with the talents God bestowed on you? You buried yourself in a cave because you were fearful of losing those talents. So this is your heritage: the certainty that you wasted your life.' Beautiful are the people who must realize this. Because when they are finally able to believe in miracles, their life's magic moments will have already passed them by."


This struck a chord in me because I have some things that I wanted to do that are still on the backburner. I recognize that I couldn't start because I was afraid of taking the risks. I was afraid to lose. However, I can feel some change happening within me. These journal prompts, those recent card readings, and these conversations that I'm having with myself, are all helping me reflect on what I really want. It's a lot to unpack actually because I have spent years hiding them under the rug. Slowly but surely, I'm pulling them out on plain view, and really reflecting on what courses of action I want to make.


📝 "If we do not lose contact with that child, we will not lose contact with life."

Over the years, I have recognized that I still possess a naive and childlike wonder towards the world, and I have this notion that it's not a good thing, because I am already an adult. However, reading this statement became a reminder to myself that that's totally okay. For example, I still feel the magic in the air during Christmas🎄. I know most adults become jaded and just see Christmas as another tiring period of shopping and doing a lot of errands. For me, I see it as a wonderful season of giving and celebration 🎁The festive energy is still magical. ✨

📝"LOVE IS A TRAP. When it appears, we see only its light, not its shadows."

I have not really experienced falling in love; I haven't been in a romantic relationship. I read that people who have high defenses and are reluctant to let others in are often those who love deeply. When they do love, they do it without limits. Reading this, I felt some kind of fear of falling in love with someone.  It’s scary because it means you're not in control of yourself; emotions take full charge. I might have the tendency to see only the positives and not recognize the red flags. 😭🚩So yeah, maybe this is the reason why I'm still single. 😅

📝 "Some people always have to be in conflict with someone, sometimes even with themselves, battling with their own lives. They begin to create a kind of play in their head and write the script based on their frustrations. The worst part is that they cannot present the play by themselves, so they invite other actors to join in."

These statements certainly reminded me of something. However, my sentiments would be controversial, so I am choosing not to elaborate here. If you find yourself on the same page as I am, you will know what I am talking about. 🙂


I'm grateful to be able to read this book. I do believe that it's not a coincidence that I read this book during this time of my life. This book gave me a sense of direction in determining my life purpose, my north star. 🌟 I know I have listed a lot of quotes here, but the book has plenty of them. This proves that Coelho has a lot of wisdom to share with the world. I encourage you to pick up one of his works, any of them, and see how it can change the way you look at the world. It changed mine, for sure. 🌏

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