“Momma, sun!”, my daughter gushed while doodling on a rainy afternoon. She handed me her purple crayon. “You want me to draw a purple sun?” I laughed. “Purple sun, purple sun, purple sun!!” she insisted. Obviously, we had no time to waste! We drew a purple sun, a blue pig, an orange rabbit and a black lion that day. She was immensely proud of her art.

Sketching is a fairly common activity for us – and I realize that every time my toddler reminds me about the fundamentals of life. That we do not need to arrange things into neat little boxes to understand the world around us. 

The sky can be green, clouds pink or the trees red. I often stop myself from ‘correcting’ her with, “Apples are red or green, not blue,” or some such logical statement.

Because in her amazingly creative 20-month old mind, nothing is defined by rigidity of any kind. Her thoughts are not bound by the chains of information, knowledge or experience. Everything is fluid… and well, that’s the beauty of it. 

“I think, therefore I am,” wrote the French philosopher Rene Descartes, emphasizing that our ability to ponder or ruminate is what validates our existence. This idea ties in magnificently with the concept of Panchakosha (five sheaths) in ancient Vedic philosophy, where it is believed that the human body transcends the physical, mental and emotional realms.