The Alchemist - Paolo Coelho - Part 4 of 4

2020 Reading Challenge - Day 191

July 10, 2020

Book 54 - The Alchemist
Paulo Coelho (1993)
 Part 4 - page 159-167
Reading Time - 15 minutes

Santiago and the Alchemist part ways and he is three hours away from the Pyramids. He arrives on a sand dune and see the Pyramids, falls to his knees and weeps. As his tears fall on the sand, he remembers what the Alchemist had told him: "wherever your heart is, there you will find your treasure". Santiago starts digging. A couple of Arabs appear, beat him up and rob him of the gold that the Alchemist had given him at the Coptic Monastery. They want to know what he is digging for... and finally, Santiago tells them that he had a dream about a treasure. One the Arabs laughs and tells him that he had a dream too, on that exact spot, of a ruined church in Spain with a treasure buried at the base of a sycamore tree. The men then leave Santiago to marvel... he knows that church... that's where he had his dream about the Pyramids.

And so the story comes full circle. Santiago travels back to Spain, digs up the treasure and gets ready to head back to the oasis and his love, Fatima.

The question that I am left with, pragmatic me, is why couldn't Santiago have had the dream of a treasure buried in the church but... that wouldn't have generated much of a story! And, through his adventures, Santiago has become an adventurer, who has discovered the love of his life. He has learned much... and the excitement lies in the journey, not the destination.

Reading about Santiago and seeing his trials and tribulations as part of a grand adventure is a bit easier than doing the same with my own life! When you're in it... trials and tribulations seem a bit overwhelming... but Santiago had trust... and faith... and that is really what carried him through.