Reading the signs

We all make mistakes … No one learns a new language without making mistakes … By making mistakes, by daring to make mistakes, you learn. — Paulo Coelho

Like Santiago in The Alchemist I have always been able to read the signs.

I do not know if it is an innate ability, but for most people it is an alien concept.

In Faith Under Fire, Canon Andrew White discusses how in Baghdad, people have come to understand the importance of signs.

For the people of Baghdad, these signs can quite literally mean the difference between life and death.

We all make mistakes. Those who do not make mistakes, are not perfect, they are the sad individuals who never take risks, do not follow their dreams, then in their dying days, regret a wasted life.

– Live a lie and regret or take risks and follow your dreams

It is through taking risks we progress.

What is wrong, is not the making of mistakes, but to not learn from our mistakes, to keep repeating the same mistakes over and over again.

If we put our hand on a hot plate and it burns, what do we gain by repeating the exercise?

Sometimes though we do not read the signs, or we read them incorrectly.

Paulo Coelho talks about reading the signs.

He then tells a lovely story, brought to life with illustrations by Ken Crane.

Enjoy!