My Date with Destiny

If you know me, you know I love Harry Potter.  But as much as I adore JK Rowling, she's not my favorite author.

That title is held by Paulo Coelho.

Do yourself a favor and read The Alchemist.

Anyway, I follow him on Twitter (duh, I'm an addict) and he tweeted the GREATEST 10 second story today: http://paulocoelhoblog.com/2010/10/03/10-sec-read-destiny-eng-port-espa/

Deciding on the Destinies of Others

Malba Tahan tells the story of a man who met an angel in the desert and gave him water.

“I am the angel of death and I came to get you,” said the angel. “But as you were kind, I will lend you the Book of Destiny for five minutes; you may change what you want.”

The angel gave the man the book. As he was leafing through its pages, the man began reading about the lives of his neighbors. And he got discontented,

“These people don’t deserve such nice things,” he said. With the pen in hand, he began worsening the lives of each one.  Finally, he reached the page of his destiny. He saw his tragic end, but as he prepared to change it, the book disappeared. Five minutes had already passed.

And right there, the angel took the man’s soul.

I loved this and so immediately retweeted it and started texting it to my friends.  Unfortunately, no one seemed to "get it" quite like I did.  The Boyfriend in fact asked why I had sent it to him as though there were some ulterior motive.

I guess it's pretty open to interpretation but for me, this story is all about happiness and what each of us do to make us happy.

The man in this story was immediately gratified by making people around him miserable and knowing that he had a negative impact on the people who's destinies he'd changed.  He focused on that instead of extending his own life or making his existence better.  And it was his natural reaction, his first instinct to look at those around him and see if he agreed with their destinies.

Some have argued that while they wouldn't impact their neighbor's lives negatively, they would look for their friends and attempt to impact their lives positively.

I guess I can sort of understand that but if the Angel of Death looks me dead in the eye and says "Listen, it's time for you to go.  But since you're such a pal, I'm going to give you the option to start over.  Here you go."  Uh... sorry best friends, I'm going to take that.

I might write in that I could get 10 minutes instead of 5 with the Book of Destiny and then go back and help you out, but the first 8 minutes are going to be dedicated to me making sure I can spell "independently wealthy" correctly and give myself enough time on Earth to enjoy it.

I don't feel like this makes me a jerk at all.  In fact I think it shows just how much I've grown as a person.  I used to be all about putting my needs behind others and since my divorce, it's been the exact opposite.

And look at what a difference few years make!

When I started dedicating my time more to me, I started feeling happier.  I realized that I had to be the one to "have my back" because no one else would.  And just like that... things got better for me: friends, an awesome boyfriend, a great job and a kick ass little puppy.

I've been accused of giving too much.  I agree, I do.  I just started giving to myself as much as I give to others.  I've found it to be a pretty sweet balance.