The Road to Love

The most beautiful things in the world cannot be seen or touched; they are felt with the heart.

The Little Prince by Antoine de Saint-Exupéry was my favorite book when I was growing up. It’s an allegory about love, loneliness and loss: a pilot crashes his plane in the Sahara Desert, while fixing his plane, a young boy who he calls the "little prince" magically appears, and the prince tells him fantastical stories from his short life before leaving planet Earth. It’s a children’s book for adults. The pages are full of words of wisdom, and I read it over and over again. I still read it today.

One passage has always stuck with me. The little prince meets a fox, and the fox tells him that "the most beautiful things in the world cannot be seen or touched, they are felt with the heart." I’ve always understood the conversation to mean that the beauty of material things can never match the beauty of what we feel inside. No matter how much money we make, no matter all the comforts and luxuries in the world we can afford, nothing comes close to the comforts and luxuries of love. Nothing is as beautiful as love.

We are all born with the ability to give and receive love. When we are young, our hearts have no guards. We aren’t afraid to express our true feelings. We love openly and honestly. But when we get older, we see the imperfections of the world. We learn fear and hate and heartbreak and disappointment and hurt. We forget to listen to our hearts. "All grown-ups were once children," Saint-Exupéry wrote, "but only few of them remember it."

Over the years, I have had my fair share of disappointment and heartbreak. I lost my father. I lost my best friend. I developed a thick skin to protect me from pain. I let my mind take over my heart. I stopped crying. But lately I’ve been starting to rediscover my inner child: I have started sharing my emotions more openly; I have started feeling again. For the first time in a long time, I laughed until I cried and cried until I laughed. I have made myself vulnerable, and I have started to love again.

Love means to commit ourselves without guarantee, to give ourselves completely in the hope that our love will produce love in the loved person.

Our greatest challenge in life is to live in love but we must pray that if we open our hearts, if we let our guards down and become vulnerable, we will find love. Love, Erich Fromm said, means to commit ourselves without guarantee, to give ourselves completely in the hope that our love will produce love in the loved person. It’s an act of faith, and those who don’t have faith, have little love.

When my dad passed away, my only regret was that I never told him how much I loved him. If I could have back just one more minute, if I could have back just one more second with him, I’d say to him, "I love you." So next time you see your partner, don’t forget to say "I love you." Call your parents and an old friend, and say, "I love you." Say "I love you" to your neighbor and a stranger too. You might never get a second chance.

It’s always easier to run away from love than to walk toward it. You must take the first step.

Remember, every person you meet is as frightened and as full of love as you are. It’s always easier to run away from love than to walk toward it. You must take the first step.

That’s why I’m building the human network. It was built on love. It is the first step. It brings the world together in love.

The road to love can be a long and lonely one but I’m with you on this journey together. So come join me. Out on the horizon, where dark clouds once eclipsed the sun, I see a brilliant, beautiful light.

I love you more than words can say.