It is only with the heart that one can see rightly.
There is an enduringly popular children’s book called Le Petit Prince. It was written by Antoine de Saint-Exupéry and published in French in 1941, and has been popular in English as The Little Prince. In it, an aviator who is stranded in the desert meets a strange small character, the little prince, who has come to earth from a distant asteroid. It is full of beautiful philosophy, and reads like a parable.
One of my favorite quotes from the book (which is, let’s face it, everyone’s favorite quote from the book) is “Voici mon secret. Il est très simple: on ne voit bien qu'avec le cœur. L'essentiel est invisible pour les yeux.” It is most often translated as “Here is my secret. It is very simple: It is only with the heart that one can see rightly; what is essential is invisible to the eye.”
St-Exupéry wrote the story during World War II, as he traveled to the United States to seek their involvement in the war. He was not welcome in parts of his own country where the Vichy government was in power, though he eventually returned to fly in the French Air Force to combat the Nazis. So in many ways, it is a parable about being lost in the wasteland of a world turned upside-down. The take-away of the book may be that there is value in simplicity, and in loving something as simple as a single rose.
This week, I am continuing to pull back from too much time spent watching the news or consuming much social media, because the outside world is too upsetting to spend much time in just now. There are families fleeing Afghanistan because one or more of them assisted U.S. or other allied troops; there are thousands of COVID patients flooding the hospitals, often because they refused the vaccine; there are fires to the west of us, hurricanes to the east.
We are all, like the aviator in The Little Prince, stranded in an inhospitable place.
Yet we, too, can tune into our own hearts and intuition, and find what it is that is essential. We can find that we, too, can love a single rose. That we can find small pockets of joy and meaning. That we are not, in fact, alone.
If you want your own copy of the book, you might check out the 75th anniversary edition here.
If you want some ideas of what to do instead of watching TV news and/or doom scrolling, you might like some of the things I’ve been up to. They include reading books and magazines when I’m able to focus, assembling a jigsaw puzzle, having my own afternoon tea break, baking muffins, assembling an icebox cake, making a pie, cooking somewhat more involved meals, bingeing on Netflix shows, watching LEGO Master, Crime Scene Kitchen, and Making It! on television, taking salt baths, doing yoga, and spending time on Pinterest. Oh. And applying a temporary tattoo.
The temporary tattoo contains the symbols for the four alchemical elements: fire, water, air, and earth. I am aligning myself in all the ways I can think of to help attract the right clients for my new Aligned Alchemy coaching package, which is all about combining spiritual and energetic manifesting with practical coaching to help you attain what it is you want in your life. If it sounds like your cup of tea, get in touch!
