November/December 2014

There are special moments where you connect with another living being. When no words are spoken you can understand each other. Some moments you can physically feel, as you run with your dog and your steps fall in line, as if to the beat of a drum. You can feel it through music as you dance together with someone you love, twirling in and out of the rhythm and letting it hold you close. When you don’t even try, it can happen, as you hold a baby close to your chest feeling its fragile heart beat. And the precious life in your arms doesn’t even know the brightness of the world, but you know each other. When you are a baby, you don’t know how to speak but you have a language. It is silent and without words. As you learn to speak, that unspoken language gets less practice and slowly fades away like a memory from long ago until all you know are words as if that is the only way to communicate. Sometimes you can still use it and it will kick in on its own, that is when these moments happen. The language is strong and quiet like a wooded stream. You will stop to listen to it and feel it in you bypassing your brain and rushing straight to your heart. If you hold onto that current you can embrace it and let it speak to you in its own way. Bethany Duff, 11Landenberg, Pennsylvania