Carpe Diem #1325 follow the dictates of your heart

Dear Haijin, visitors and travelers,

What a wonderful month this is. As you all know I love the novels written by Paulo Coelho. I have read almost all his novels, but the novel from which the quote for today comes I haven't read yet, but of course I intend to do that without a doubt. The novel from which I extracted the quote is titled "The Valkyries" and was published back in 1992. At that time I hadn't heard from Paulo Coelho.
The love for his novels came as I read the special edition of "The Alchemist" back in 2013, that year "The Alchemist" saw a 25th anniversary edition in an awesome beauty. I was caught by the beauty of that story and became addicted to this author. So in a way you can see this month as a kind of tribute to the beauty of Paulo Coelho's novels.

The Valkyries by Paulo Coelho (cover)

Let me give you a short preview of "The Valkyries":

The book is autobiographical, but told from the third person. It deals with the exorcism of personal demons and discovering one's strength. It also deals with relationships among people, in this case, Paulo and his wife. Together with her, he embarks on a journey through the soaring heat of the Mojave desert. During the 40 days journey, surrounded by doubts and temptations and entering their innermost conflicts and questions, they met the valkyries, strange warrior women. (Source: Wikipedia)

Before I share the quote for today I also love to share a piece of Wagner's composition "The Valkyries" (Die Walkure):

An awesome piece of music. In a way this music by Wagner shows the beauty of "The Valkyries" as written by Paulo Coelho in which a group of women on motorbikes is playing a role. Coelho and his wife meet them in the Mojave desert. 

There is another religious or spiritual connection with The Bible, because as you maybe know Jesus Christ was tempted by the devil for 40 days in the desert. Paulo and his wife are in the Mojave desert for 40 days ... no coincedence of course, because Coelho uses often religious or spiritual ideas in his novels. That's the reason why I am such a big fan of his novels ... I am a spiritual person and through the novels of Coelho I learned more and more about spirituality or better said ... my spirituality.

Okay ... back to our inspirational quote for today taken from "The Valkyries":

[...] "There is no sin but the lack of love, have courage, be capable of loving, even if love appears to be a treacherous and terrible thing. Be happy in love. Be joyful in victory. Follow the dictates of your heart." [...] (Source: The Valkyries by Paulo Coelho)

be happy in love

I wasn't inspired enough so I scrolled through my archives and found the following haiku and tanka:

at the horizon

air dances in all freedom

love on the beach

watching the world

with an open heart and mind -

that's true wisdom

silence all around

the busy world has gone away

follow your heart

feel the love of Mother Nature -

sunflowers blossom

© Chèvrefeuille

I think this quote fits the time of year and I hope you will find your inspiration to create Japanese poetry.

This episode is open for your submissions tonight at 7:00 PM (CET) and will remain open until December 19th at noon (CET). I will try to publish our next episode later on.