Coincidences and Enthusiasm

Photo by http://www.flickr.com/photos/drp/

I remember reading back in High School The Celestine Prophecy by James Redfield.  In fact, I read this one summer after seeing my cousin Matt from Oregon bring it up for some light reading on a visit with us. 

I have forgotten more of this great book than I remember but I do recall quite vividly the first insight that has made a lasting impact on my life:  Pay attention to the coincidences in your life.  I am paraphrasing, but that is the essence of the first prophecy from that book.  As a side note, I pulled the book out of storage today to give it another go around.  As Henry Drummond is quoted as saying, "When you read a book through the second time, you don't see something in it you didn't see before, you see something in yourself that wasn't there before.”  Redfield's book was one of those life-changing moments for me.  It taught me that there were other roads to spirituality apart from Catholicism which I have personally perceived to be occasionally oppressive in practice. 

Okay, lost a little focus there, but stay with me, it comes together. 

So with a second cup of coffee, let's bridge the gap and get back to "Enthusiasm." 

I am reading another great book right now, by Paulo Coelho, The Pilgrimage (Plus).  Paulo is my favorite author, by the way, bar none.  His writing is beautiful, poetic and exemplifies the essence of spirituality.

I came across a passage that particularly struck me, that forced me to put down the book and meditate on the message given.  Just prior to the halfway mark of the book, the narrator, who is on the Road to Santiago to metaphorically find himself, illustrates a lesson with his guide on the concept of Agape, which is love powered by enthusiasm.  As children, we are absolutely fascinated by everything, from what is on our dinner plates, to the bugs crawling on concrete.  We approach learning with the greatest of enthusiasm, perhaps to impress others, but more likely because this world is actually a fascinating place, warts and all. 

At some point in pre-pubescence, this diminishes, perhaps due to peer pressure or from the constant barrage of mom and dad saying “Don’t touch that!”, and by the time we are adults, on our own, with the freedom to do whatever we wish, the world no longer fascinates us.  We fall into routine that, though malleable, we become stagnant for the rest of our lives.  We learn more in the first five years of our lives than we do in the remaining seventy-odd years.  The major reason this is so, I think, is because of enthusiasm, agape, this wild-eyed wonder about our world. 

The message that Coelho is trying to get across is that we need to re-awaken that enthusiasm in us, in order to break routine, in order to start building a life worth living.  There are exercises in the book that help to awake this.  I will not spoil the book otherwise.  It is a great read and for $14, the investment is most worthwhile.

So I set the book down at this point to meditate a few minutes on the concept of enthusiasm, and what this could bring to my writing and my music.  Then I picked up the latest edition of the magazine, The Writer, and started reading an article on a nineteen year old author who published her first book when she was ten.  She said the key to her writing success was Enthusiasm. 

That's where the first Celestine Prophecy regarding coincidences comes into play.  I ripped out the article and tucked it neatly in my Paulo Coelho book and then headed into my little computer room/studio.  For the next two hours I put enthusiasm to work and came up with five distinctly different song structures that I will be busily completing over the next few days.  I dabbled in some poetry as well, in the hopes of completing my second manuscript and I even came up with a unique perspective on creative practice that I will share on Friday.  It was one of those rare moments where the Muse was speaking quite clearly to me. 

Walter Russell (see Yesterday’s post) also believed in the importance of enthusiasm for one’s work and even went so far as to state that he believed it to be the key to staying strong and vibrant as we age.

I hope to be able to capture that moment more regularly with my net of enthusiasm.  Anyway, that's all for now, it feels like it’s going to be a great day today.

Peace,

Charley