Paulo Coelho's Blog - Latest Comments in Question of the Week

Re: Question of the Week

sandra — Tue, 28 Apr 2009 17:24:54 -0000

No friends, no books, no internet, no exercise, no sex, no silence, no music, no touch.

Re: Question of the Week

Diana — Wed, 16 Apr 2008 13:59:13 -0000

I think being with or without everything else I can live with. Being without my son, I am not sure about.

Re: Question of the Week

Diana — Wed, 16 Apr 2008 13:57:18 -0000

Not being able to hear my son's voice or touch his skin, especially after a long day.

Re: Question of the Week

rara — Mon, 14 Apr 2008 15:00:35 -0000

not to be loved in return

Re: Question of the Week

LIANA — Mon, 14 Apr 2008 06:31:21 -0000

Well,my personal hell is being forbidden to read books and watch soccer matches. And the most important-being forbidden to think and speak about the man whom I love.................

Re: Question of the Week

chieko — Mon, 14 Apr 2008 02:45:26 -0000

bad hair cut!

Re: Question of the Week

Anna — Sun, 13 Apr 2008 12:39:54 -0000

my personal hell ... (for the time being)

to not be able to see the sun for many days because of the clouds and rain.

limitations of colours around me.

empty eyes of the people in the tube

thank you

Re: Question of the Week

German Fafian (KaosAxiom) — Sun, 13 Apr 2008 09:56:07 -0000

Hell N1:
Not being considered a "real musician" because I give my music away for free. Odd isn't it?
Hell N2:
Not saying what I have/want to say because it will hurt someone else's Ego, Even if it will do them good in the long run.

Re: Question of the Week

Brenda — Sat, 12 Apr 2008 17:26:06 -0000

Hell is when my ego gets in the way of life's purist pleasures.

Re: Question of the Week

mariana — Sat, 12 Apr 2008 09:56:50 -0000

my personal hell
1. i hate tsunami and flood
2. family gathering,cause my cousins so rude
3. my husband don't pick me up from work
4. rainy in the morning, it's too cold to take a shower
5. out of gas when i'm cooking

Re: Question of the Week

Kathleen — Sat, 12 Apr 2008 03:56:51 -0000

Here's my list:

1. Working in a job I hate.
2. As Paulo stated - nightclubs with too loud music.
3. People who talk too much lol
4. Not being able to be creative and learn.
5. Any accounts/paperwork - HELL!!
6. No access to the internet.

Re: Question of the Week

Angela — Fri, 11 Apr 2008 23:24:15 -0000

my personal hell
- not being able to converse with people and share and learn from each other
- not having the internet and read paulo site everymorning to start my day and my books to read
- not wearing my red lipstick everyday
- not be able to compliment at least one person everyday
- not be able to meet up with 'wine' friends at the wine bar where we all meet and converse on days events, not having those friends there when you just walk in
- not having people genuinely happy to see you
- not actually genuinely happy to see others
- and forgetting that the best is yet to come.

Re: Question of the Week

Gilda — Fri, 11 Apr 2008 18:14:15 -0000

Mi infierno seria :
-No tener internet
-No poder escuchar musica
-No poder programar sw
-No tener nada que hacer en el trabajo
- y mucho mas.

Re: Question of the Week

Nicola — Fri, 11 Apr 2008 18:00:43 -0000

Hell would be the following,

Being stuck in a toilet cubicle with childrens music playing in the background.

techno music.

waiting in never ending queues at the airport.

Letting go of a deep love, and being separated knowing that you may have to wait until a next lifetime to be re-united.

Hell is losing the reception of a television just before the film starts.

Losing a bank card ten minutes before going on a shopping spree.

Hell is living in a confined space, with out personal freedoms, Hell is to lose the smallest of personal boundaries.

Hell is to harbour the secrets of a loved ones trauma and be unable to process it, as its not your story to tell.

Some of these aspects that feel hellish can bring perspective and a new level of maturation. I appreciate hellish moments I have been through, but missed the innocence that my eyes and soul once felt.

Re: Question of the Week

ANLAO — Fri, 11 Apr 2008 12:56:44 -0000

stunning question. i've been looking inside for the past few days. my personal hell is made of
- first conscious breath in the morning, alone in a bed too big for one person. that's why I sleep on the couch most of the time.
- feeling that I am still the same, even after trying hard for years to improve/change, and fearing that years from now I will still be the same.
- watching hours, days, years fly by without the love of a man and fearing more than anything else that my life will fly by without it, than feeling guilty for wanting it so badly.
- finding myself again and again in situations in which no matter what i do, i fail somebody. Having to decide who do i save first, and who do i sacrifice by leaving it behind, because i cannot focus on every member of my family all the time.Seeing that this cycle never ends.
- always being the 'shrink' of the family, and when i want to stop doing it being accused of 'not caring'.
- faking that i know what i'm doing in the dating world because men judge technique more than genuity. i'm not used to how my body really reacts in many intimate-like situations, but nobody expects a beginner at my age (almost 30), so i have to hide it. whenever i control myself to act the way 'i am supposed to', i really do not feel much, and that terrifies me.
- crying alone. i hate it.
- feeling guilty for needing.
- reaching out to people i thought were friends only to be told i have to 'fix myself'.
- wanting to express so much but not being able to. somedays for ethical reasons, others for fear of being ridiculed, or endless etiquette. Days go easily by without time to be myself, because time is filled with who i am supposd to be.
- not feeling any desire to work in the past years, but still feeling guilty every time i don't work. i miss the times i was truly passionate about what i was doing.
- having to build "relationships" at work, and groups of 'friends', when i do not feel any need to. being judged on how sociable or 'healty' i am by the ability of forming somewhat superficial relationships, when all i feel i need or want is 1-3 really close people.
- having projects in the back of my mind and ignoring them for years, because they are not what i studied for, not profit-bringing and because they seem stupid ideas. they don't go away, and i so many times i wish they would.
- having to belong to a belief-group. somedays i feel like thanking god, other days i would yell 'f you' in its face, and other days i am so sick of teh subject i just don't want to see, hear or think about it. i don't know what that makes me, but i feel pressured when people are looking for my beliefs to connect with me. ateists want me to be atheist, christians want me to be christian, and i don't feel any of those.
- living in a culture of perfect bodies, and trying to feel confident and sexy, when i really do not feel that way. my breasts are not as perky as they were, thighs are not small and i have the hands and feet of a peasant worker, no matter what i do. and men react to those things more than they do to my humour, kindness, intelligence, spontaneity, dancing, overall sexuality, or whatever charm.
- carying on with unresolved regrets and anger. because the man i felt in love with is a player, always having 3-4 women around him, everything i do being judged, either by him or anotehr woman, until a crack is found and somebody else can get a leverage. regrets because a part of me wanted to express itself towards him, regardless of the fact that anything he did towards me was vague, and there was always some other woman in everything we did, from conversations to actual activities. anger both towards myself for allowing this to happen, and towards him for his part in it, especially the upfront one, like trying to justify it that this is evolution, and it is normal for hot women to want him, when a man is attached (ie: open dating) it means he is of value, and it is normal for other women to want him and pursue him. anger because i have spent months trying to understand that mentality, because in my mentality a man that does not choose a partner, a man that never stops encouraging otehrs to come towards him, and changes 8-9 partners in a year, is not exactly dictionary definition for a man of value. I found another definition in the meantime, that of narcissistic sociopath. (he found one too, most probably that of a frigid bitch.) but anyway, trying to escape this endless loop of regrets and anger, so i can be myself again, and build my life, yet finding myself back in again and again, trying to understand, or find out where i was wrong, has been just another hell on top of the previous ones.

Re: Question of the Week

kikiDelau — Fri, 11 Apr 2008 09:24:08 -0000

- noisy place
- not writing
- not having love

Re: Question of the Week

Luz — Fri, 11 Apr 2008 08:39:58 -0000

Hell to me would be
-in a locked place, caged, devoid of light.
-Seeing the one I love and to know they love
me not.
-To live with constant violence and fear. I
could not survive it.
-To be trapped in my body, with no way to
communicate with others.
-To survive without hope.

Re: Question of the Week

Myrabeth — Fri, 11 Apr 2008 00:51:25 -0000

Fear of Alzheimer's or ALS
Two very different diseases--one where your body stays pretty intact but your mind leaves you, but not without you knowing it.
The second is ALS (Lou Gehrig's) leaves the mind crystal clear and the body quickly (over a period of a few short years) shuts down, so that by the end the communication from a mind that is aware and cohesive is cut off.
These, after lots of years of hospice work, are my 2 fears--and of course the fear is the hell, not the disease itself!

Re: Question of the Week

Rouie — Thu, 10 Apr 2008 23:07:47 -0000

- not having someone to talk to
- going home on foot during rainy days
- noisy place/surroundings
- being overworked
- going to the dentist
- feeling unproductive

Re: Question of the Week

Jenny R — Thu, 10 Apr 2008 22:34:50 -0000

I'm with you on the waking/sleeping thing.

I had to give up coffee and it was awful at first (took me six tries), but now I kinda dig it. Herbal teas aren't so bad.

Re: Question of the Week

Maria — Thu, 10 Apr 2008 22:28:08 -0000

Shaima,

I agree with Annie, it seems like you are letting routine take over your life. Yes! routine could become a hell, but only if if you let it.

Read Paulo's blog for April 3rd. Read the quote of the day, and also try reading people's comments. I think this may help shed some light on the subject.

Keep the faith!

Re: Question of the Week

monica burla — Thu, 10 Apr 2008 12:27:31 -0000

il mio inferno personale in poche righe:
- amare un uomo e sapere che lui prova lo stesso per te; ma essere coscienti che non può essere il TUO uomo
-non vedere il sorriso di un bambino per un giorno intero
-passare attraverso paesaggi da sogno con qualcuno che ti parla in continuazione di cose inutili...così...tanto per passare il tempo...
-prendere l'autobus o il treno
-visitare una città con la guida turistica
-non sentire la presenza di mio padre

potrei continuare...le idee non mancano...ma non so nemmeno se il sig. Coelho parla l'italiano!!!!!

Re: Question of the Week

Maria — Thu, 10 Apr 2008 11:40:22 -0000

Wow! This is a long list, I didn't expect it to be this long when I started to write, and I don't expect anyone to read through it, but I guess I just had to put it out there.

Some of these hells I have experience, some are just things I fear would happen.

My hells:
- losing a love one (that's an obvious one)
- seeing a love one waste away by illness (like aids, and Parkinson’s)
- losing the memories of the love ones that are gone from this earth
- losing any of my pictures, these are part of these memories
- losing all my computer files
- losing love
- Not having companionship
- Having any one of my children feel they can't talk to me about anything.
- Not been able to cook
- Not been able to read
- Not been able to sleep
- Not been able to eat and enjoy my food
- Not been able to entertain
- Not been able to sing or dance
- exercising!
- Not been able to shut my brain down and rest at night because thoughts keep running through my head. Too many dreams.
-depression
-anxiety
-physical excruciating pain, pain that won't go away no matter what medicines you take
- Emotional pain
- Not been able to stay with the pain
- trying to escape the pain with alcohol
- Not having the support of my husband
- Not been able to let go of my childhood, and my resentment towards my mother
- Not having forgiven my father
- Not having forgiven my mother
- trying to accept people, just how they are
- Dealing with petty people
- Dealing with injustice
- seeing suffering (of any kind)
- Not having enough patience, with myself or others
- losing faith
- learning to say NO
- learning to say YES
- Not getting old
- Not having grandchildren

Re: Question of the Week

Ruth — Thu, 10 Apr 2008 11:21:56 -0000

- Not finding the door back in my heaven.

Re: Question of the Week

hope — Thu, 10 Apr 2008 11:07:50 -0000

My personal hell would be,knowing almost everything that other will never know ,knowing everything about future but still not being able to calm my heart in times of trouble.Not being able to treat Papa ,and JC the best i should have,other would have done their best.And everyday,listening to others problems and solving it,and forgetting my own,sometimes it is boon but sometimes,when it comes back alive to attack everyday and becomes personal hell to me.