Sprite: Mom?
Mom: (changes the radio station, checks over her shoulder for a car in her blind spot, and trys to burn "toilet paper" into her mental grocery list) Yes honey ?
Sprite: Did you know that some people don't like Christmas?
Mom: Oh?
Sprite: Yeah.
Mom: You mean, like the Grinch?
Sprite: Yeah, like the Grinch (cuddling his stuffed Grinch).
...pause...
Sprite: Do you know what those people who don't like Christmas do?
Mom: What's that, honey?
Sprite: They have Kwaanza!
Snap!
September 2009
Mom: (reading from The Hermit and the Well, a gift from our neighbor) " ...You too may have met your hermit. Maybe it was a rock, a tree, a star, or a beautiful sunset. The hermit is the Buddha inside of you.")
Mom: Okay, sleep well baby. I love you.
Sprite: Mom?
Mom: (pauses at the door) Yes, honey?
Sprite: What is the Buddha inside of me?
Mom: (buys time by walking back to him and sitting on the edge of the bed, hoping for a wise answer to magically occur to her.) Well, what do you think it is?
Sprite: I think it's the peaceful part of me.
Mom: (speechless at the insight of a child's mind) ...
Sprite: (Points to a spot on his shin, right above his ankle.) It's right here.
Mom: (Surprised) Really? Why?
Sprite: Because that's the part of me that gets hurt the least.
Sprite: Oh, and here. (Pointing to his other shin) I have two Buddhas inside of me!
Somehow I think he's closer to grasping eternal mysteries than I am.
