Favorites are that way for a reason.

One of the things I make a habit of doing is reading my favorite book before the start of a journey. Its only 150 pages so its not like it takes longer than a day. This time as I perused its pages, quotes and passages were just leaping out at me, so much so I actually picked up a pen and did some underlining. Maybe its just my stage in life that allowed me to find such passages so meaningful, but for those interested in some thoughts to ponder (out of context) here goes:

On Life:

• Life attracts life. (my personal favorite)
• You will never be able to escape from your own heart. So its better to listen to what it has to say. (my second favorite)
• Its the possibility of having a dream come true that make's life interesting.
• Its the simple things in life that make life extraordinary.
• The world's greatest lie is that at a certain point in our lives, we lose control of what's happening to us, and our lives become controlled by fate.
• When you are young, everything is clear and everything is possible. You are not afraid to dream, and to yearn for everything you would like to see happen to you in your lifetime. As time passes a mysterious force begins to convince them that it will be possible to achieve their personal goals.
• Whoever you are, or whatever it is that you do, when you really want something, its because that desire originated in the soul of the universe. And when you really want something, all the universe conspires in helping you achieve it. (Really....)
• For her, everyday was the same, and when each day is the same as the next, its because people fail to recognize the good things that happen in their lives every day the sun rises.
• Every blessing ignored becomes a curse.
• It is written, and sometimes there's just no way to hold back the river.
• The language of enthusiasm, of things accomplished with love and purpose, is a language everyone understands.
• Making a decision is only the beginning of things. When someone makes a decision, he is really diving into a strong current that will carry him to places he had never dreamed of when he first made the decision.
• Intuition is really sudden immersion of the soul into the universal current of life, where the histories of all people are connected, and we are able to know everything because its all written here.

ON LOVE:

• When you know the universal language, its easy to understand that someone in the world awaits you, whether its in the middle of the desert or in some great city. And when two such people encounter each other, the past and future become unimportant. There is only that moment, and the incredible certainty that everything under the sun has been written by one hand only. It is the hand that evokes love and creates a twin soul for every person in the world. Without such love, one's dreams would have no meaning. (favorite)
• Realizing that he had loved her before he even knew she existed, he knew that his love for her would enable him to discover every treasure in the world.
• You must understand that love never keeps a man from persuing his Personal Legend. If he abandons that pursuit, its because it wasn't true love.
• When I have been truly searching for my treasure, every day has been luminous, because I've known that every hour was a part of the dream that I would find it.
• Many people let life proceed, in its own direction, toward its own fate. But, unfortunately, very few follow the path laid our for them. Most people see the world as a threatening place, and because they do, the world turns out, indeed, to be a threatening place.

I found it interesting the quotes divided themselves into two categories -- life and love. Maybe that is why this is my favorite... it focuses on my two greatest passions.

(and in case you don't know me well enough -- although then don't know why you are reading this -- my favorite book is the The Alchemist, and my favorite author is Paulo Coelho)