Little Teachers, Big Lessons

It's been a rough week. And when you're standing on a train platform, soaking wet in the middle of an almost 2 hour commute and start to cry from frustration, it's time to say...whoa, lets take a moment and reflect.

I'm sure I've written about these books before over the years: The Little Prince and The Alchemist.

They never get old. Sometimes when I feel like my world is out of whack and I've forgotten all the things I've learned the last couple years, I reread these books to remember. And then I feel in balance again.

The Little Prince:
If you're not already familiar (I have no idea why you wouldn't be..do you live under a rock?!) this little book appears to be a children book but is actually a self help guide for adults. It's the story of a little prince from a far away planet who feels the need to explore and see what's out there in the stars because he's lonely. He leaves his flower (who he loves dearly, although she's beautifully difficult and hard to reach behind her little thorns)and planet-hops for a while, meeting ridiculous people along the way. He finally lands on Earth in the Desert and meets a stranded pilot, a snake and a fox. The little Prince finally realizes, with their help and after all his journeys, that he misses what he left behind and is still lonely, and he wants to go home--back to his flower who may or may not be there anymore.
This book teaches about the dangers of being narrow-minded, the hunger of exploring both the outside world and yourself, and the importance love and relationships have in helping you grow. Antoine de Saint-Exupéry wrote this story on and off for many years in an effort to get the stories and pictures just right. And he did it. Which is why it can be translated in over 250 languages and still convey the same messages.


The Alchemist: This book is about realizing your Destiny, in a nutshell. It shows us how the main character, Santiago, has to travel for years and go through all sorts of trials and tribulations--loss, love, hard work--before realizing that his destiny WAS going through all that to become a better person who isn't always longing for what 'could be'. Just like the little Prince, Santiago is curious, and his curiosity and need to discover what his existence on this planet means, often drives him away from people and places he longs to be with.
This story teaches us that we must follow our instinct and be in tune with the world around us in order to really realize where it is we should be going on our personal legends, and also the danger of Fear, which often stands in our way of realizing our destiny.



Both books teach us that we have to go on a journey--it's called Life I guess--before realizing what we truly need and want, and what we are capable of accepting. Often times, we must leave the things we love the most in order to realize this. But if it is meant to be, if life is just a series of tests and lessons, we often end up just where we're supposed to be. When we look back, when we read the story, it all makes sense. And sometimes we have to reread the stories in order to remember this.

I urge everyone to read these books. They're short and easy reads but have so much meaning. And for those times we cannot learn through what we are actually experiencing, it's good to be able to learn by experiencing it through someone else.