When I read a short story by Paulo Coelho in his book "The Alchemist" I never quite understood it's true meaning, I knew it was suggesting something very profound, but I couldn't quite put my finger on it. It went something like this:
Narcissus would stand by a beautiful lake and contemplate his own beauty each day, one day when he died and didn't visit the lake anymore, the lake cried and was filled with salty water. when asked why the lake was crying, she said she missed Narcissus. When asked why she missed Narcissus, afterall the only reason he visited her was to contemplate his own beauty, the lake looked perplexed."Was Narcissus beautiful?" she asked, "for everytime he looked into me, I contemplated my own beauty reflected in his eyes".
Recently, I went to hear a lecture by Deepak Chopra, he narrated a similar story.
One evening he was walking along the beach with his 6 year old grand-daughter, Tara. He said to her at one point "I love you", to which she retorted "why?". He was taken abaack but said "its because the light from all those stars above us are shining in you, and in your eyes", and she asked "why?". To this, he replied, "well, this way when you look a the stars, they can see their own light shining at them". The little girl thought for a while and finally tugged at him saying "Nana, look up, the stars want to see themselves".
What a lovely concept, what if we always reflected the good that we know exists in all of us, giving it back for them to enjoy and cherish.
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