My two-year-old grandson was visiting with my mother on FaceTime. The phone was propped up on the kitchen table facing him as he was eating slices of apple. After his joyful, heartfelt “Hiya, Mommom!” she tried to engage him in conversation.
“Did you go to school today?” she asked.
“Apple is good!” he replied with a delicious smile on his face.
“Where is your Mama?”
“Apple is good!” he replied through dribbling saliva and pieces of apple falling from his lips.
“Are you going to play outside?”
He took another bite and said, “Apple is good!”
While this might have been frustrating for my mom, in his innocence and purity he was modeling living in the present moment. Nothing was going to distract him from the joy of eating the apple.
We so often talk about plans for the future or evaluate where we have been without truly feeling with all of our senses where we are. We seamlessly shuffle from the need to escape to the desire to entertain or to be close to others with mindless chatter, thus missing the gift of accepting the present. He was enthralled and absorbed, delighting in the sensual pleasure of eating an apple. I am going to take this lesson from a toddler into my thoughts and see how it changes my behavior and consciousness.
As always, I welcome your thoughts.
Ellie, you share such great stories, but I have to say your adorable grandson taught a great lesson. Apples are very good! 🙂