Let me just bring up some key words and facts to make my point:

It’s estimated that every year, about 1.2 million children are trafficked (CHILD TRAFFICKING) in order to exploit them; exploit them by forcing them to work, commercial sexual exploitation, prostitution and other forms of slavery. That’s about 4 kids in the two minutes it will take you to read this article and hover a bit over santiagosdream.com – or 3,287 per day! Raped, sold, beaten. Little kids.

When Paulo Coelho posted the enigma on his website early January, asking for 12 tests to be solved, which lead to locations in France and Spain along the Way of St. James, he thought it would take a long time to solve all challenges and travel there.

I read about it on January 15^th immediately had the feeling that this sword is for me. The thought that shot into my head was that the sword wants to come back to me and maybe Paulo put it there to see whether I would follow it’s call and if the universe had really written our connection somewhere. It was me, who gifted the sword to Paul on his 60th birthday in 2007  as a sign of my deep appreciation for his writings. Especially “The Alchemist” helped me out of a personal low phase of my life.

I am an entrepreneur and have always been a writer about non-fiction topics, technology, economy and related. And when asked what I would like to be, when I grow up (if!?), I’d always say ‘a writer’.

I immediately started discussing with my wife and a friend, started solving the riddles and once I was sure, my initial idea was to wait until the weather gets warmer in Europe and then do a real pilgrimage. On second thought, I realized, that this was about another challenge, not a pilgrimage and focussed on solving it the quickest way possible. I made arrangements, reserved my flights and then learned that one Guardian was only available from February 6 or 7 on, so I had to change my reservations and adapt my plans – not for the last time, as you will read! In my heart and in my head, I was on this journey from the day I read about it and enthusiasticly worked on all aspects of it.

I arrived from San Juan in Barcelona only Sunday a week ago, rented a car and went on my way to locations I figured out over the internet. About that, I will write shortly, first an overview and then location by location about how I felt and about all the things that happened.

In short: there were so many little things that happened, that I could not possibly have planned what was necessary to get all proofs and arrive first; for me a clear sign that truly the universe conspired to lead me back to my sword and to focussing more on writing than my business projects.

I am filled with ideas, inspiration and enthusiasm, to finally compose the many different manuscripts I have written and gathered in my drawers over the years into “Santiago’s Dream” – the magical novel, that starts where “The Alchemist” ended and is closely connected to the Paulo Coelho Challenge.

I would really love, if the other Knights of the Light who I got to know on this quest, would contribute with their insights and emotions to this blog and to the books. You know how to reach me, I don’t want to impose, but I think this is a great platform to display what you have experience and learned going on the quest.

My heart ached when Paul from Austria, whom I got to know in various occasions during the challenge, arrived only 20 or 30 minutes after me at the 12th location and had to see me walking out with the sword. Paul, please accept my respect for you setting out on this trip, respect that I have for all who came.

But at the end, I believe what happened, was written: Maktub!

The sword is a replica of Excalibur, the sword of King Arthur. It was manufactured in India, I received it in PR and prepared it for 5 weeks with the help of the elements before I sent it to France as a gift for Paulo.

My name is H.A. Freeman, I am an entrepreneur and aspiring writer, of German descent and I live with my wife, son and dog in San Juan, Puerto Rico, in the Caribbean. One of the for me most important books I ever read, was The Alchemist, the best-selling novel of Paulo. It was the novel’s main character, Santiago, eagerly following his dreams, accepting that the whole universe conspires and helps, if one does so, who motivated me to pursue mz own dreams without ever stopping and limitless perseverance.

The motto of my life is: “Everything is possible, just do it.”

Thanks for all the good wishes and congratulations I already received. I hope you all and many more do continue to follow my journey that really just begun.

All the very best,

H.A. Freeman

We are already using one of the paintings as the twitter-background at http://twitter.com/santiagosdream,  soon on santiagosdream.com – and God knows where else we will.

The other one (see picture left) is going to be framed and we will auction it here on the website with the proceeds going to thePaulo Coelho Institute. Maybe we can get Paulo Coelho and the one who finds the sword first to sign it on the back before it gets shipped out!?

Thanks for all your support – and for coming. May you find what you seek!

Welcome, Bienvenidos, Bienvenue, Bem-vindo, Willkommen!

In fact, I have it with me twice, once on the Kindle and my kind of outworn original, signed by Deepak, that I have been carrying with me and reading several times since about 1998 (or maybe even longer).

On one of the first pages, before the actual book even starts, there is a quote from the Brihadaranyaka Upanishad, about which I have been pondering since I first read about Paulo Coelho’s Quest for the sword:

“You are what your deep, driving desire is.

As your desire is, so is  your will.

As your will is, so is your deed.

As your deed is, so is your destiny.”

It is my deep, driving desire, to be on this journey.Thus my will to be here and now, is strong and the hurdles presenting, are being overcome by my will and deed. And still, in many situations I have found that there seems to be more than just my will or my deed involved. There seems to be something drastically bigger in the background involved, weaving the outcome of this journey and my destiny. Or, as Paulo called it, the “whole universe conspires” because I’m following my dream.

There have been some major obstacles in my path, some would probably say, there still are.

But I can’t help but feel the effortless ease quoted in Deepak’s book, when one practices the Law of Detachment; which means, I have the goal to complete this journey, write about it to as many as possible AND hopefully be the one to receive the sword.

But I have detached from the outcome of the journey, I have let it go. I enjoy simply the doing and writing about it. The latter more than anything else.

Something funny is happening since then, since the moment I actively and consciously let it go: not only, the above mentioned weaving of circumstances and people has come in a way, that I cannot ignore it or not see it. But it made me also re-think and re-focus on the true purpose of my life.

As if it’s not enough, it is written black on white in a book that I have read and pondered countless times and have with me on this journey, in my hands this very moment; that finally, as one begins to understand the laws of the universe, you begin to focus on your true purpose in life, which leads to the Law of Dharma.

So, obviously, I am on the way – in a very literal sense – to fulfill my life’s purpose, my Dharma, by pursuing my dream. Is it just in the doing? Just in the step to take, no matter how difficult, that one’s life purpose unfolds? What do you think?

With all this support going on and growing and knowing that thousands are already “there”,  I’m sitting alone in front of the computer, I’m alone on the way – maybe, if nobody else arrives before me, I will receive the sword alone… not a victim here, just trying to figure out some emotions I’m encountering.

Already leading a nice and somehow fulfilled life before, now reduced to my essence of embarking on the sword challenge, I’m starting to think that maybe loneliness is the essence of being human. We come into the world alone, we travel through life as a separate person – no matter how much in love we are with that other half – and ultimately die alone.

And especially in my professional career I always found that the more successful I got, the less contact – I mean deep, satisfying contact – did I have with others. I admit, the few that I still do communicate with regularly, make my heart jump and I’m glad to be able to laugh with my wife and smile at my son and share time with family and some good friends.

I guess my point is that I thought once the dross has been burned away, you rise from the ashes like the Phoenix and follow your dream, it would feel different. Like a never-ending high without that feeling of … is it really loneliness or is that the famous “feeling separate from God” or something else?

I think that I read once in an interview with Paulo Coelho, or maybe it was even in a Warrior of the Light – Newsletter, about a conversation he had with his wife. Then he had told her that he feels a certain loneliness, too. I believe to remember it was a birthday night of his. So he knows that, too!?

Today I called a friend of mine who is a speaker and spends a lot of time in hotel rooms alone. When I told him about my thoughts, he told me to “stop right there” and move towards a place where I can see other humans. A place like a Cafe or something. Done. Felt immediately better.

What stays after my examination, is the thought of potential failure. Maybe I didn’t really feel lonely but anxious. But I can’t discern the feelings at the moment. Yet, the more I think about it, the more it makes sense. I have started out on this journey, because “following the dream” or the calling of the Master is exhilarating, motivating and attracts me like one magnet the other. And really, I do enjoy every second of this. The discussions, the feedback (yes, I’m reading all and replying to most (as much as I can)). But there is indeed an underlying fear! Because I also started to win the sword and realize that with the summer coming, also others will try and that I may not win it but really “only” enjoy the journey. I do and will continue every bit of it. But: I WANT TO WIN! YES. I can already see in my mind’s eye how I am receiving the sword and how I can tell about the bits and pieces of the journey at the campfire – risking to make a real fool out of myself

So really, what I felt as being lonely, was fear. Fear to fail, to not win and I like to win – which caused a certain anxiety or tension. By the way, one of the best interpretations of “Loneliness” in music I know, is “La Soledad” by Laura Pausini, you can listen to it here.

Writing this is almost like therapy. And where words are not enough, music will always help.

Conclusions: going to listen to the song once now, then meditate and continue. Another day is soon to break! And again, concluding with Bernard Shaw: if I may win the challenge, I will not have won because of myself, but despite myself. Already a humbling experience.

When I read the challenge, I understood it immediately as a personal call to go and do it, get the sword. I spent a while thinking about it, about my motivations and came to the conclusion that I will go and visit all locations, solve all additional tasks there in order to receive my sword. Whether it will be the physical sword that is the prize, that I don’t know – neither if I’m going to be the first one to arrive. What I understand as my sword is the journey itself, the planning of which (including solving the 12 questions) has excited me already like nothing else in the last 20 years or more.

Since I can think, I have been carrying inside myself the seeds to stories but struggled planting and growing them. My real journey of life has now begun with this challenge; almost instantly I knew (finally!) what to do. The outcome is secondary, but I’m on my way!

Issues and worries will present themselves, in fact, they already have. But I will proceed and share all of it. I don’t know if that will be of interest to anybody but then: this is my very personal calling and it doesn’t really matter; important is for me just to do it and to share with me and eventually also with others because it simply gets out the seeds from inside.

I’m not a student nor retired, a working man with lots of work on his hands and I have a family, wife and kid. It’s not like I can simply leave and say “see you when I see you” and have fun following a sword. But very much like Fatima in the Alchemist, my wife gave me her blessing and knows that “the men of the desert” have to follow the signs and pursue the dream of which she has been a part of.
As to the work, as I mentioned, I have already a lot of it and the way I am planning to do the journey for me, even adds to it with additional writing and a trip being away. At this point, I really don’t know whether and or how I will be able to continue with everything else. But the challenge touched a part of my soul that makes it impossible not to heed the call!

And of course, there is the positive thinking inside, the belief in a positive outcome; as Bernard Shaw put it “The power of the dream exists in the believing.”

Bernard Shaw wrote really interesting stuff and I discovered him only recently really, when I came across him for the second time after many years and I want to close for now with quoting him on success, which I hope to achieve:

“Fear holds us and binds us and keeps us from growing.  It kills a small piece of us each day.  It holds us to what we know and keeps us from what’s possible, and it is our worst enemy.  Fear doesn’t announce itself; it’s disguised, and it’s subtle.  It’s choosing the safe course; most of us feel we have “rational” reasons to avoid taking risks.  The brave man is not the one without fear, but the one who does what he must despite being afraid.  To succeed, you must be willing to risk total failure; you must learn this.  Then you will succeed.”

Once more I thank you, Paulo! You may have saved my life just another time.