Manuscript Found in Accra Read Online Free PDF Page B

force. We could say: “I’ve suffered greatly before, and I know that this won’t last, either” and thus drive Love from our door. But if we did that, we would become dead to life.
    Because Nature is a manifestation of the Love of God. Regardless of what we do, Nature continues tolove us. Let us, therefore, respect and understand what Nature teaches us.
    We love because Love sets us free, and we say things that we once never even had the courage to whisper to ourselves.
    We make a decision that we kept putting off.
    We learn to say no without thinking of that word as somehow cursed.
    We learn to say yes without fearing the consequences.
    We forget everything we were taught about Love, because each encounter is different and brings its own agonies and ecstasies.
    We sing more loudly when the person we love is far away and whisper poems when he is near, even if he doesn’t listen and pays no attention to either songs or whispers.
    We don’t close our eyes to the Universe and then complain: “It’s dark.” We keep our eyes wide open, knowing that the light could lead us to do undreamed-of things. That is all part of love.
    Our heart is open to love and we surrender to it without fear, because we have nothing more to lose.
    Then, when we go home, we discover that someonewas there waiting for us, looking for the same thing and experiencing the same anxieties and longings.
    Because love is like the water that is transformed into a cloud; it’s lifted up into the heavens, where it can see everything from a distance, aware that one day it will have to return to Earth.
    Because love is like the cloud that is transformed into rain; it is drawn down to the Earth, where it waters the fields.
    Love is only a word, until we decide to let it possess us with all its force.
    Love is only a word, until someone arrives to give it meaning.
    Don’t give up. Remember, it’s always the last key on the key ring that opens the door.

However, one young man disagreed:
    “Your words are beautiful, but the truth is that we never have much choice. Life and our community have already taken charge of planning our fate.”
    An old man added:
    “And I can’t go back and recover lost moments.”

 
    And he answered:
    What I am about to say may be of no use on the eve of an invasion. Nevertheless, take note of my words so that, one day, everyone may know how we lived in Jerusalem.
    After thinking a little, the Copt went on:
    No one can go back, but everyone can go forward.
    And tomorrow, when the sun rises, all you have to say to yourselves is:
    I am going to think of this day as the first day of my life.
    I will look on the members of my family with surprise and amazement, glad to discover that they are by my side, silently sharing that much talked about but little understood thing called love.
    I will ask to join the first camel train that appears on the horizon, without asking where it is going. And I willleave it as soon as something more interesting catches my eye.
    I will pass a beggar, who will ask me for money. I might give it to him, or I might walk past him, thinking that he will only spend it on drink. As I do, I will hear his insults and understand that it is simply his way of communicating with me.
    I will pass someone trying to destroy a bridge. I might try to stop him, or I might realize that he is doing it because he has no one waiting for him on the other side. This is his way of trying to fend off his own loneliness.
    I will look at everything and everyone as if for the first time, especially the small things that I have grown used to, quite forgetting the magic surrounding them. The desert sands, for example, which are moved by an energy I cannot understand—because I cannot see the wind.
    Instead of noting down things I’m unlikely to forget on the piece of parchment I always carry with me, I will write a poem. Even if I have never written one before and even if I never do so again, I will at least know that I once had the