Monday, January 24, 2011

Thursday, January 13, 2011

Language

Getting my ideas through to someone else is something I have not necessarily been the most efficient at doing.  What I see in my mind's eye is not always congruent with what I am saying and this leads, at times, to confusion, misinterpretation, assumptions, and sometimes anger or hurt.  Certainly on my side I can get frustrated.  I should be putting myself in the other person's shoes and trying to have an understanding of their perspective.  This is something that have I struggled with, but as my life experience mounts, so does my patience for differing opinions and outlooks.  Sometimes I think something so strongly that I assume that the person should be able to pick up what I am laying down.  Maybe the English language (and other languages) is losing its eloquence, beauty and meaning.  In a day and age of texting, true communication is being lost and people are becoming more awkward with face to face - heart to heart exchanges.

It is not always practical to communicate face to face but this is when the true energies
 and emotions of the other individual can be most appreciated.

Shanley Pawluk Photography

One thing that I have found with with my own communications is that my past experiences and current fears can distort the language I use.  Sometimes writing things down can aid in getting the message known but even these things are subject to interpretation.  We communicate with more than just our words, however.  Body language like facial expressions, hand gestures and stance also aid in getting our message across.  




Horses rely on body language to relay their messages.  That is their language.  It is a language not clouded by the past or by the future but focused on the now.  They do not struggle for words, they simply express what is on their mind now and then resume life.  A horse does not go up and kick another horse because four months ago that other horse beat him to the oats.  Horses deal with things in the moment and use the language that they know the best.  Humans have a tendency to not say things in order to not hurt another or because we don't know how to say what we need to say, for example.  But practice makes perfect.  I am certainly not perfect (whatever perfect means) but we could learn from horses in that they express what they need in the moment and life resumes.


Language is not uniquely human and there is also something to be said about intuition, but that is another post...