The little prince was sitting on his planet, watching his forty-fourth sunset of the day, when a thought came to me.
"You know," I said to him, "grown-ups think you're wasting your time."
"How so?"
"Well, they say it's better to count the stars to find out what they're worth."
The little prince looked at me with his serious eyes.
"But I watch the sun set because it makes me happy. Is it wasting time to be happy?"
I didn't know what to answer. I had been a grown-up for so long.
That question haunted me. It haunted me for a long time.
The ancient Chinese sages had a word for it: wu wei. The art of being there without forcing.
The little prince never forced anything. He simply looked. And in that simple looking, everything came to him. Beauty. Peace. Happiness.
Us grown-ups? We look to analyze. To understand. To possess.
We had forgotten how to look for the pleasure of looking.
"Tell me again about the sheep in the box."
"You already know it."
"Yes, but I like that story."
So I told him again. How I had failed. My drawings were no good. I was tired. So I scribbled a box: "The sheep you want is inside."
"And you saw the sheep right away."
"Of course! He was perfect."
"How did you do it?"
"I don't know. I just... saw."
It's funny. When I had tried to draw a sheep, I had failed. When I stopped trying... Maybe that's what real creativity is. Stopping trying so hard.
"Grown-ups wouldn't have seen it."
"No."
"Why not?"
"I think they look too much with their eyes."
"And what should you look with?"
"The fox told you."
"Oh yes. With the heart."
Silence.
Then the little prince:
"It's funny. When you look with your heart, you see what matters. When you look too much with your eyes, you can't see anything anymore."
He was right. A baby watching a butterfly doesn't ask questions. He marvels. That's all.
Lao Tzu said it long ago: you must become like a newborn again.
But we forgot how to do it.
"Tell me, when you looked at your rose, what did you see?"
"My rose."
"But what else?"
"She was beautiful. She smelled good. Sometimes she coughed."
"And the thorns?"
"The thorns?" He thought. "They were there to show off. But I knew she wasn't afraid of me."
"How?"
"She did her hair for me in the morning."
A botanist would have seen a Rosa damascena. The little prince saw a coquette primping in the sun.
Who was right?
Maybe they were both right. But only one of them had found something to fall in love with.
"You see," said the little prince, "I don't know anything about roses. Their scientific names, their families, all that..."
"So what?"
"So I know that MY rose is unique in the world."
"How can you be sure?"
"Because she's the one I watered. She's the one I listened to. She's MY rose."
He looked at me.
"You don't know by looking. You know by loving."
Ah.
I thought of the stars that laughed for him at night. He had tamed one. How? By leaving a friend there.
That's what knowing is. Creating ties.
The businessman counted the stars. He talked to them. Who knew them better?
"How do you see with your heart?"
The little prince smiled. That mysterious smile I was beginning to know.
"It's easy. You stop trying."
You stop trying.
There was the whole secret of wu wei in three words. Spoken by a child who had never read Lao Tzu.
One sees clearly only with the heart.
What is essential is invisible to the eye.
For seeing what really matters.
You had to learn to look differently.
Like a child.
The little prince had never forgotten how.
We had.
But maybe it's never too late to remember.
I wish to express my gratitude to Benjamin Hoff and Antoine de Saint-Exupéry.
Their works have inspired me and showed that the deepest truths can be spoken with the simplest words.
OH MY! Sweet and touching. I must let it sink in and read it again.
Thank you for this beautiful gift of stillness=s, peace, joy, and knowing.
I was raised on this book. Never did I realize the connection between the Taoteching and The messages of The Little Prince. Thanks for bringing it to my attention. 🙏 I think I’ll re-read it tonight with new eyes ❤️