Looking For Words

I was born in Canada, Calgary, AB to be exact. My parents were also Canadian born. My dad’s parents were from England and my mom’s dad was from Holland and her mom was from France. The only language we grew up with was English.

English and French being the 2 official languages of Canada, French classes were a required course in school in the 1960’s. I never did excel because I was afraid that I would embarrass myself by mispronouncing words and end up swearing or something. I don’t remember much and have never had the need to use French. Well, there was that time Ket and I were trying to chat up the cute guy on the train from Toronto to Quebec City, only to discover that he spoke English too as we were leaving the train. We had talked quite a bit about the guy believing him when he said “no Anglais, Parle vous Francias?”

That reminds me of walking to school with Donalee one day talking about the advantages of being a male when riding horses, not noticing the group of boys walking behind us. Embarrassing moments, now there’s a topic to write about. But, I digress.

We were taught Parisian French in school, which didn’t make sense to me. Shouldn’t we have learnt French Canadian so we could communicate with our fellow countrymen?

English, where did it come from? What’s its origin? Did you ever wonder ‘why salt is called salt and not pepper’? And vice versa. I did in my teenage years.

English, a language I just accepted even when questions arouse. A language I took for granted.

By the 3rd page of ‘A’s in the dictionary, I decided that this wasn’t going to be the best way to find the words I was looking for. Thinking that somewhere, someone else has already done the work, it must be on the internet. What do I search for! I remember that there is a word, a proper term for this group of words. That much I remember from my school days.

So I google “same word different meaning” and get 234,000,000 results in .24 seconds. Now where do I start, is there an end!

I rediscover that there are different categories. Heteronyms – different sound, same spelling like ‘a tear in my coat caused me to tear up’. Homonyms – same sound and spelling like ‘the actor took a bow on the bow of the ship’.

It is not only the words we take for granted, but also the mystery of our brain that deciphers the words. How does that work! We can even decipher words when the letters are all jumbled up as long as the 1st and last letters are right.
And don’t even get me started on text messaging – a whole new language evolving where the letters ‘c’ and ‘u’ mean ‘see you’ and ‘lol’ means ‘laughing out loud’ and well, that’s a topic for another story.

We know a lot about the human brain. Scientists have it mapped and labeled. As much as we understand, there is still more to discover. What is it that makes some of us jumble up our letters and numbers, or stutter! With so many life memories to remember, where is the room to store all that information in the filing cabinets of our brain! Why are some memories locked away unable to be retrieved! How does a word, phrase, event, date or emotion trigger a flood of past memories. Where is the connection!

Our brain knows instantly without conscious effort whether the word is ‘read’ or ‘read’, ‘lead’ or ‘lead’, ‘bow’ or ‘bow’, ‘bass’ or ‘bass’, ‘dove’ or ‘dove’, ‘live’ or ‘live’, ‘polish’ or ‘Polish’, ‘tear’ or ‘tear’, ‘wind’ or ‘wind’, ‘wound’ or ‘wound’, ‘ and so on.

And if I couldn’t master French as a second language, how did I ever learn a strange, complex, and illogical language like English! I wonder how to explain what the right answer is when someone asks me what the meaning of a word is!

Writers search for just the right word combinations. Words that will paint the masterpiece they intend. Those magical words that will transport the reader to discovering the treasures that they are working to display.

So many more questions to explore. Do people that can sing also have a better ear for languages! And abbreviations, yet another topic to write about.

I went back to the first 3 pages of the dictionary again to count the words. Out of the 110 “A” words, I counted maybe 16 that I have used over the last few years and over half that I don’t even know, never heard of before.

English, a language that lets us function in our daily lives when only using a small portion of the words that exist.

And if we had only known that these days, it would have been more of an advantage to have learnt Chinese instead of French.

Landscape of Therapeutic Touch

Picture this. I am standing quietly with my eyes closed holding the palms of my hands a few inches apart. I am aware of the rhythm of my breathing. Consciously I deepen my in-breath, breathing in the sturdy strength of the tree image I pretend to be, with roots reaching down into the earth. And on the out breath, releasing into the earth all that I do not need in the moment. Relaxing and letting go.

The sound of my breathing comforts me. I feel the soft breeze of my breath on my skin beneath my nostrils. I feel the space within my body expand as my breath fills me. I feel whole and at peace. Connected. My thoughts have all but vanished. Man made clock time is transcended. I am in the moment.

The space between my palms feels like a beach ball of energy. Grounded and centered, I am ready to reach out and explore the realms of the energy field I have been invited to explore.

I open my eyes and raise my hands to scan a few inches above my client’s physical body noticing differences, little speed bumps that I will come back to. I use my thought mind, imagining the person being grounded to the earth as I hold their feet. Again, I slowly gently rhythmically wave my hands above their body. This time my thought is of unruffling, smoothing out the speed bumps. This energy dance of offering the healing universal energy that surrounds us continues, my hands drawn to where they are needed.

Scanning again, my hands glide through the energy field checking the flow. All the while I am listening to those intuitive nudges, colors or images that pop into my mind. I trust the flow of the bigger picture. I am anchored in the present moment of time. An intuitive sense to end comes when the work is done.

Finishing off by grounding again, I step back as I honor the client’s ability to continue their healing work. I encourage them to rest awhile.

Eventually we are both pulled back into the man made time realm we live in. We share our experience with each other often marveling at the similarities. I am humbled and grateful and feel truly blessed to be a part of such an intimate connection. The landscape of my being has been truly changed by the experience.

Lynn Keeling
Jan. 19/09