Paulo Coelho's Brida

Brida 

Paulo Coelho

Fiction/Novel 

originally published in 1990

Translated from Portuguese by Margaret Jule Costa

hardbound, 212 pages

This is my second Paulo Coelho book. I first read The Alchemist and it did not transform me into something after reading it (even just into something next to stone). It was eons ago that I read it, and sadly, all I can even recall now is how I was thinking that everything in it were cliches. After reading Brida, I wonder why I think/felt that way with The Alchemist that I am on a mission to reread it. Perhaps, as a reader I was, in time, transformed too.

Not that Brida got me totally. It is just that I gave it a chance as I went on, perhaps because Brida is a woman and this is March, a celebratory month for women. And usually, the equinox happens in March. I should have some mystic vibes so I can be more receptive, I guess. But that is the point of reading, to explore a world, an idea outside our own and somehow finding some connections or understanding in the cliches of life.

Brida ushered us to the Celtic world where the Tradition of the Moon and the Tradition of the Sun are learned as a journey of self discovery. She became a full-fledged witch (out of these other possibilities: saint, virgin and martyr), her destiny, and also found her Soul Mate after many reincarnations.

Interestingly, here are  what I highlighted with my orange pen:

... that she, with her affection and her gaeity, had been largely responsible for him having rediscovered the meaning of life, that her love had driven him to the far corners of the Earth, because he needed to be rich enough to buy some land and live in peace with her for the rest of his days.

... Tradition of the moon never to interfere with another person's free will.

She prayed that the harvest would be good and that the field would always be fertile.

I was important to the world and to the history of my country. I felt necessary, and that's the best feeling a human being can have.

... finding one important thing in your life doesn't mean you have to give up all the other important things.

Being human means having doubts and yet still continuing on your path.

... anything you can do can lead you there, as long as you work with love in your heart.

"May God bless our food. We are all sailors on the unknown sea, may He make us brave enough to accept the mystery."

I can't see the neon yellow highlights now as I scan but here's more. 

How much I missed, simply because I was afraid of missing it.

Anyone who tries to possess a flower will have to watch its beauty fading. But if you simply look at a flower in the field, you'll keep it forever. 

You will know a good wine if you have first tasted a bad one.

Nothing in the world is ever completely wrong. Even a stopped clock is right twice a day.

The best way to destroy the bridge between the visible and the invisible is by trying to explain your emotions.

What is outside is harder to change than what is inside.

The devil is in the details.