My Daughter’s Perspective on Holiday Shopping

We’re in a glitzy store, admiring all the ornaments and enjoying the holiday smells.  As my children wander down the aisles to observe the dazzling toys, my youngest cries out:

“Mommy!  You have got to come see this!  It’s amazing!  Come here right now!”  She’s calling out to me, weaving in and out of shoppers to pull me to her side.  I think she’s about to show me some toy–the kind with bells and whistles and a price tag we’ll never be able to afford.

Instead, she drags me to. . . nothing.  In silence, she points to the floor.  There, on the store’s carpet, imprinted with the markings of a thousand holiday shoppers’ shoes, a rectangular rainbow appears from the perfect configuration of light coming through the window through some prism I cannot see.

“Look at it.  Just look at it!”  She moves her feet and hands within the rainbow, and I do the same.  The light on our skin makes us blaze with a spectrum of colors.  She’s filled with wonder at this rainbow on the floor.

It cost me nothing.