The Little Prince was my favorite book as a child, but as an adult, I realized that it’s actually not a children’s book.
It almost seems as if I understood its message as a child but slowly forgot about it as an adult—just like almost any other adult who read it.
For those of you who never heard of this book, here is the story: the little prince lives on a small and lonely asteroid. The most precious thing in his life is a rose that he protects from all kinds of dangers. But one day, he decided to go to planet earth to find himself a friend.
He doesn’t want to leave behind his beloved rose, but the rose encourages him to go and promises to take care of herself.
Before his journey to planet earth, the little prince already visited six other planets and got to know six different characters: a king with no subjects, a narcissistic man, an alcoholic, a materialistic businessman, an obedient man, and a geographer who never left his home.
The little prince was not too impressed by these characters and traveled to planet earth in hopes of finding a real friend who is not like any of these men. But the narrator of the story already warns us that the adult population on planet earth is full of these characters.
Nevertheless, the prince travels to our planet. But he doesn’t encounter any of these men because he lands his spaceship in a desert. And again, the little prince is facing loneliness, and he keeps thinking about his rose.
And as if all of that wasn’t challenging enough for the prince, he sees a row of rosebushes. All these roses make him wonder if his beloved rose had lied to him. He thought she was unique but starts to question that after seeing all the other roses.
Then the little prince meets a fox. The fox asks the little prince to tame him, but the prince says that he doesn’t have time for that as he is trying to find friendship.
But the fox doesn’t accept that as an excuse and explains:
“To me, you are still nothing more than a little boy who is just like a hundred thousand other little boys. And I have no need of you. And you, on your part, have no need of me. To you, I am nothing more than a fox like a hundred thousand other foxes. But if you tame me, then we shall need each other. To me, you will be unique in all the world. To you, I shall be unique in all the world.”
The prince goes back to the rosebushes and looks at them. All of a sudden, he realizes what the fox was trying to explain to him and says to the roses:
“You’re beautiful, but you’re empty. One couldn’t die for you. Of course, an ordinary passerby would think my rose looked just like you. But my rose, all on her own, is more important than all of you together since she’s the one I’ve watered. Since she’s the one I put under glass since she’s the one I sheltered behind the screen. Since she’s the one for whom I killed the caterpillars (except the two or three butterflies). Since she’s the one I listened to when she complained, or when she boasted, or even sometimes when she said nothing at all. Since she’s my rose.”
And that is the beautiful message of this book that I want to share with you today.
Nothing in this world is special or meaningful to everyone. Our eyes see all the roses in the world, but only our heart is able to feel how special a single rose can be.
Our memories of good and bad times create the connection that we are all longing for. Friendship and love cannot be found; they have to grow over time.
As long as we search for the one, we will never have the patience to create a relationship with anyone. Nobody is the one for us when we meet them for the first time.
Love is not a product that we can buy or that is hidden under a rock; it is something that grows over time—just like a rose.
Maybe we should stop searching for our twin flame and listen to the fox and the little prince. It is up to us to create meaningful connections in our life.
Connection is something that cannot be found; it has to be built over time—and the same goes for love and being unique to someone.
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