Manuscript Found in Accra Read Online Free

that came down to Earth is here for a reason.
    The people who really help others are not trying to be useful, but are simply leading a useful life. They rarely give advice, but serve as an example.
    Do one thing: Live the life you always wanted to live. Avoid criticizing others and concentrate on fulfilling your dreams. This may not seem very important to you, but God, who sees all, knows that the example you give is helping Him to improve the world. And each day, He will bestow more blessings upon it.

    And when the Unwanted Visitor arrives, you will hear it say:
    “It is fair to ask: ‘Father, Father, why hast thou forsaken me?’ But now, in this final second of your life on Earth, I am going to tell you what I saw: I found the house clean, the table laid, the fields plowed, the flowers smiling. I found each thing in its proper place, precisely as it should be. You understood that small things are responsible for great changes.
    “And for that reason, I will carry you up to Paradise.”

And a woman called Almira, a seamstress, said:
    “I could have left before the crusaders arrived, and, if I had, I would now be working in Egypt. But I was always too afraid to change.”

 
    And he answered:
    We are afraid to change because we think that, after so much effort and sacrifice, we know our present world.
    And even though that world might not be the best of all worlds, and even though we may not be entirely satisfied with it, at least it won’t give us any nasty surprises. We won’t go wrong.
    When necessary, we will make a few minor adjustments so that everything continues in the same way.
    We see that the mountains always stay in the same place. We see that fully grown trees, when transplanted, usually die.
    And we say: “We want to be like the mountains and the trees. Solid and respectable.” Even though, during the night, we wake up thinking: “I wish I was like thebirds, who can visit Damascus and Baghdad and come back whenever they want to.”
    Or: “I wish I was like the wind, for no one knows where it comes from nor where it goes, and it can change direction without ever having to explain why.”
    The next day, however, we remember that the birds are always fleeing from hunters and larger birds, and that the wind sometimes gets caught up in a whirlwind and destroys everything around it.
    It’s nice to dream that we will have plenty of time in the future to do our traveling, and that, one day, we will travel. It cheers us up because we know that we are capable of doing more than we do. Dreaming carries no risks. The dangerous thing is trying to transform your dreams into reality.
    But the day will come when Fate knocks on our door. It might be the gentle tapping of the Angel of Good Fortune or the unmistakable rat-a-tat-tat of the Unwanted Visitor. They both say: “Change now!” Not next week, not next month, not next year. The angels say: “Now!”
    We always listen to the Unwanted Visitor. And we change everything because he scares us; we change village, habits, shoes, food, behavior. We can’t convince theUnwanted Visitor to allow us to stay as we are. There is no discussion.
    We also listen to the Angel of Good Fortune, but we ask him: “Where will this lead?”
    “To a new life,” comes the answer.
    And we think: “We have a few problems in our life, but nothing that can’t be solved in time. We must serve as an example to our parents, our teachers, our children, and keep to the correct path. Our neighbors expect us to teach everyone the virtue of perseverance, to struggle against adversity and overcome obstacles.”
    And we feel proud of ourselves. And we are praised because we refuse to change, continuing instead in the direction Fate has chosen for us.
    Wrong.
    Because the correct path is the path of nature, which is constantly changing, like the dunes in the desert.
    Those who think that the mountains don’t change are wrong; they are born out of earthquakes, are eroded by wind and rain,