Orange Moon and Twinkle Shoes

The other day, my wife and I were in our bedroom, engaged in a discussion. Aarav—our two-year-old toddler—walked in, wanting to play with us. Since we weren’t done talking, I tried to distract him. I told him to get his storybook, Goodnight Moon. He replied, “Yes, Daddy, the orange one.” I wasn’t sure what he meant by “the orange one,” but since I was trying to keep him occupied, I said okay.

He ran downstairs and came back with his book. He had the right one—Goodnight Moon—and then he flipped it over and showed me the back cover, saying, “Orange, Daddy!” 🙂 I had read that book to him dozens of times, yet somehow, I had never noticed the color of the back cover.

A few days later, I was rushing in the morning to get Aarav ready for preschool. He likes to choose his own clothes and shoes. My wife had already dressed him, so I showed him the shoe rack with all his shoes and asked him to pick a pair. There were three pairs, but he didn’t want any of them. He said, “I want twinkle shoes.”

I didn’t understand what he meant, so I asked my wife if he had any twinkle shoes. She said no. She tried to persuade him: “Why don’t you pick a pair from these, and I’ll buy you twinkle shoes later?” But Aarav was stubborn—he wasn’t having it. Then I remembered another pair of shoes in a different closet. They were light blue, and I wasn’t sure they would satisfy him, but I brought them out anyway. To my surprise, his face lit up, and he happily accepted them. I was relieved that my small trick had worked.

As I bent down to help him put them on, he turned one shoe over, pointed to the stars on the sole, and said, “Daddy, look—twinkle shoes!” 🙂

Aarav’s awareness inspires me to be more present and to savor life’s small moments. In many ways, he is already Zen—living fully in the now. How can we nurture this gift in him—and perhaps rediscover it in ourselves?