Saturday, May 12, 2007

The Power of Words

After a brief hiatus, my source for blog challenges, Cowtown Stacy, challenged us with this:
  • Words can be powerful. Think of an occasion when someone blessed you with their words. (Conversely, words can be powerfully hurtful, too. Write about one of those instances if you must, but try to think of a positive memory instead.) Describe the circumstances surrounding the words that were powerful to you. Who said it? How did you react? How does it afffect you today?

12..14.01: Thing One is starting to use his own name. It doesn't sound like I'd expected it to, but oh my, to hear him say it just melts my heart.

I found this in one of Thing One's old school journals (a back and forth book for special ed. students and their parents). Yep, go ahead, do the math. He was 3.5yrs old when he first started to speak his own name. A few months later he was working on stringing three words together. Dune-Beaches-Boardwalk. Who cares that is was "story speak" and he was copying dialogue from Dora the Explorer. I didn't. I was just thrilled to hear him string those three words together.

Pretty much most of our circle of friends know the chatty version of Thing One. It is hard to imagine his voice was once a heart breaking silent nothing. With endless worries of whether he'd speak, and once he started to speak, was this just a fluke, would he stop suddenly or even regress.

I have to remind myself on the days where he is talking non-stop, that this was once (and actually still is) a blessing. Words are indeed powerful and such a welcome sound! May I always be open to hearing the beauty of his voice: whether it be in joyful excitement or a foul mood pout. He's using his words to communicate and that indeed is something to celebrate!

2 comments:

Colleen O said...

Well words are powerful. Yours just about made me cry. (I'm also having a hotflashy-hormonal power-surgie thing going on, on top of your excellent prose.)

tz said...

that was wonderful!