March 27, 2009
I originally planned to post all the tales in the order they occurred, but sometimes I’m gonna have to go with the Flow … this morning, I got a new comment on the post about Binny the Albino Squirrel, noting the similarity between my experience and the story of the Little Prince & the Fox.
I was amazed – not only because it added another layer of coincidence to the Little Prince story below, but because the commenter had made a connection that I’d been blind to … which validates my hope for this blog, that its interactive nature would help make new connections and further illuminate the mysteries I’m exploring … -
Late Thursday night I was lying in bed reading with Becky. She was reading a book I’d gotten her earlier that week: Leo Buscaglia’s ‘Living Loving and Learning.’ (I’d ordered a used copy for her after I’d suddenly remembered it – back in junior high I’d found a copy at a garage sale and really liked it.)
When she put it aside to go to sleep, I picked it up and paged through, wondering if it would seem terribly cheesy to my older eyes. I flipped through looking at chapter titles until I saw one called ‘On Becoming You,’ and started at the beginning of it.
A quote from the first page stood out to me, “Perhaps love is the process of my leading you gently back to yourself.” The quote was from the book ‘Wind, Sand, and Stars’ by Antoine de Saint Exupery – a name that rang a bell – years ago, my grandmother had given me a copy of Exupery’s ‘The Little Prince,’ saying that I had always reminded her of the story.
I had an impulse to find that copy of ‘The Little Prince,’ which I thought was in the bedside table drawer – I startled Becky with the burst of activity as I dug around looking for it. But I didn’t find it in the drawer, and went to sleep thinking I’d locate it later.
But by morning, I’d forgotten about finding the Little Prince.
That afternoon my mom came to the house to get some help with her laptop and hang out a bit. As we sat around chatting in my living room she sorted through the materials she’d brought with – then suddenly asked me if I still had the copy of ‘The Little Prince’ that her mother had given me – she’d just found a reminder note she’d written to herself saying: “Max – read: The Little Prince.”
I laughed at the coincidence and told her I had just been looking for that very book the night before, and I went upstairs to find it (it was ON the bedside table, not in it).
Then I asked her what had prompted her to write the note.
It turned out that 20 or so years ago, her father had given her a book which she’d just had an urge to read for the first time since then. In it, she found a chapter titled “What is Essential is Invisible to the Eye,” based on the philosophy of ‘The Little Prince.’
What was she reading?
A different chapter of the very same book that Becky and I had been reading – Leo Buscaglia’s ‘Living, Loving, & Learning’.
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Needless to say, I’m reading ‘The Little Prince’ now – and paying attention to what it has to say …
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“You can see clearly only with your heart.
What is truly important is invisible to the eyes.”
- Antoine de Saint Exupery, ‘The Little Prince’
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