Love Simply Is

 Love is not a habit, a commitment, or a debt. It isn't what romantic songs tell us - love simply is. … love is. No definitions. Love and don't ask too many questions. Just love.

Sherine Khalil/Athena/Hagia Sofia/The Witch of Portobello

Another book that explores the Divine Feminine - the female side of God. In a time when people are either too religious or too detached from spirituality, some dare follow an entirely different path in the search of life's true meaning. I have no intention of promoting a particular belief system. I am merely reinstating what has been written down. Wiser men have warned me a long time ago about choosing what I read, lest books sway me into something dangerous in way of faith. But allow me to remove myself from the subject of religion but instead focus on the more universal aspects of the book.  

The Witch of Portobello is Paolo Coelho's latest work. It is the story of Sherine Khalil, the one who chose to be called Athena, who summons within herself an inner goddess and calls her Hagia Sofia, who tells people things that they want and need to hear using magic [used here to denote something that is supernatural; enchantment would probably be a more suitable term], thus earning the name The Witch of Portobello. Her story was told through the eyes of people who knew her - both those who loved and followed her and those who were instrumental to her transformation from a restless young lady to a woman of mission.

Athena had it all -  a loving family, a successful career, a husband and a son. But she was not happy. She felt that she needed to fill the white spaces - those moments that exist in between the time you are doing something you deem as useful; that part of your being which doubts your true identity. Like when she studied calligraphy - she mastered the letters but the spaces were there; they make her work incomplete. So she went to search for her blood mother (a gypsy who was banished from her community for sleeping with a foreigner) in Romania, in a town called Transylvania. Forgiving her mother (who left her at an orphanage) did not give her heart peace, but her journey opened up a new world. She gained a teacher, one who told her to teach by means of learning from her students. She discovered how dancing out of rhythm, to the point of exhaustion, could make her in touch with the side of her that is much wiser and much more enlightened. Then she taught other people to do the same.

Perhaps Athena was just like the rest of us. Just another lonely soul looking for a meaning that transcends beyond merely breathing and getting through the day. Maybe she was privy to something most of us couldn't [or wouldn't care to] see. And she used that to free herself, from inhibitions or repressions that she felt was making her unhappy, all in the search of a purpose in life. Or maybe she was just one of those people who uses charm and beauty to make others believe there is something else inside her, something more special and even superhuman, to gain others' trust and devotion. In the end, it was all about feeling loved and protected. And protecting those who you love most.  

We find and manifest love (and faith) in different ways.  We'll forever debate on the line that separates what is divine and what is human. But if there's one thing we won't argue on, it's that love is. It's our greatest weakness. It's our greatest strength.