All grown-ups were once children, but only few of them remember it.

With age children lose the gift that allows them naturally to live in harmony with their spirit.

The most important thing that we loose as we grow older is our spirit Getting old is not about ageing, its about spirit.

Adults aren't disappointed simply because we have grown bigger, or obtained jobs, or taken on responsibilities.

We are disappointed because for many of us these pursuits have taken on a disproportionate importance.

We have forgotten how to see the world as it actually is and are blinded by appearances.

We see people as statistics, education as functional, food as fuel, clothing as utilitarian and books as unnecessary luxury.

We vastly over-value what we can experience with the senses.

If this is what it means to be a grown up, is it any wonder that Saint-Exupery refused to condone our way of life? We are like the accountant he describes, spending our days working over our books, counting everything up, claiming ownership of all we can fit in the ledger, and failling to see that we live in a whole, wild universe filled with stars somewhere in the midst of which one, unique rose lives on a planet and calls out for love.