The Wise Uncle and the Divine Niece

After Thanksgiving dinner at my parent's home, my young niece, Alexis, asked me, "What is Infinity?" with her wide-open, seven-year-old eyes.

I looked into her eyes and said, "Infinity is everything that ever was, is, and will be. Infinity is the part of you that is one with everything else."

"Wow," she replied. "So the whole world is Infinity?"

"Well, the Earth is an Infinity in and of itself, but all things are part of an even bigger thing." She took a minute to try to wrap her head around that.

"You know how inside you is your heart, your lungs, and your brains?"

She nodded back at me.

"And all of those things inside you are smaller than you, but they make you up and are a part of you."

She nodded again.

"In this way, we are all a part of something even bigger than we are."

"I want to be able to see it all!"

"You can, Alexis," I replied. "I want you to go ahead and close your eyes."

She did.

"I want you to feel your oneness with all things. Touch the universe with your heart and with your mind."

She squinted her eyes and tried for about 15 seconds, until she finally opened them and exhaled. She looked up at me and said, "Alex, that's hard."

I just grinned and said, "It isn't easy. It takes training. Yet the rewards of opening your mind far outwiegh the benefits of material possessions and life in the physical."

"Can we color now?"

"Anything you'd like, Sweetie."