Il faut chercher avec le coeur

When I was in high school, I read Le Petit Prince (The Little Prince) in my AP French class. It's basically a children's book, but it is quite profound. I came across my old copy when I was organizing/re-doing my room this weekend. I flipped through it and recalled the passages I loved (mostly because they were underlined in red with English translations penciled in). It's a story about a man (the author) stranded in the Sahara desert who comes across a prince (who if I remember correctly is from another galaxy). The author/narrator explains to the prince how ridiculous mankind is, and how adults often miss the point that children so easily understand. The prince offers his own advice/thoughts--and those passages are just beautiful. (and way more beautiful spoken in French, rather than English)

Perhaps the most famous passage, said by the Little Prince:

"On ne voit bien qu'avec le cœur, l'essentiel est invisible pour les yeux"
(It is only with the heart that one can see rightly; what is essential is invisible to the eye).

I really love this one, though:

"Quand on a terminé sa toilette du matin, il faut faire soigneusement la toilette de la planète."
(When you've finished getting yourself ready in the morning, you must go get the planet ready.)

But, my personal favorite:

"Ce qui embellit le désert, dit le petit prince, c'est qu'il cache un puits quelque part..."
(What makes the desert beautiful," says the little prince, "is that somewhere it hides a well.)

Even in a place as dry and void of life as a desert, there is hope. In the book, the desert is where the narrator encounters the Little Prince. There, the narrator has this deep, contemplative discussions about love, life, and hypocrisy of the world. In the desert, and after his encounter with the Little Prince, the narrator gains hope.

Sometimes I think it takes removing ourselves from the crazy distractions of day to day life to remind ourselves of the great hope we have. Sometimes being in the "desert" is what it takes to remember hope, because when we're in the desert, we are forced to search for the well. We have no choice. We have nothing else to rely on or substitute.

I might be stretching this...but I LOVE this book. Get a copy, read it. And if you don't know French, well they certainly publish translated versions...so no excuses! :)