... "just read it"... she said ...

... "I'm not sure how this one passed you by" ... ... I think those were the words used when she lent me the book ... adding a touch of sheepish culpability to my receipt of her kindness ... "but," she ventured to add with a sage tone in her voice, "it doesn't really matter much when you read it ... just read it" ...

... of course I devoured it right away and have been keener to life's de facto ironies ever since ...

... Brazilian writer Paulo Coelho's 1988 mystic novella The Alchemist will do that to you if you've ever dreamed or dreamed of dreaming ...

... either you have or you want to ... and many of us can find some liberation in our dreams ...

... additionally, embedded in this tale-of-journey is profound reflection on the road travelled ... the factors that can affect decision making, direction of conscious energies toward what the heart desires and the satisfaction of soul ...

... if we accept that matter can neither be created nor destroyed then we flirt with the concept of alchemy, or change, in nature ... when we further expand to see alchemy at play in changes of circumstance ... even geographical scenery ... we realise alchemy in reality is not about medieval potions and the turning-of-lead-into-gold conjuring of hooded magii, but simply about ...

... understanding ...

..." just read it," she said, which I repeat and endorse ... and, I suggest you'll want to do so before the long-anticipated release of the movie version by Laurence Fishburne ... now expected next year ...