I’m not exactly sure where I’m headed . . .

but I do know education opens doors.

I’m thinking a lot about language, specifically, these days: poetic language, certainly, as I’ve just finished one poetry class and begun another, but also because I’ve started learning Spanish. Even if I never make it back to Mexico . . .

. . . the learning itself is worth the effort.

I absolutely won’t stop French. I’m loving the progress I’ve made and there’s still plenty to learn. But I’ve finally achieved a level that won’t be compromised by beginning another related language. I’d thought about Italian, but Spanish is more useful here in Colorado, so Italian will have to get in line.

So far, it doesn’t feel like such an uphill climb this time.

French is a big help, and bonus: fewer accents to remember in Spanish.

I love kids’ fearlessness with language. They’ll repeat anything without hesitation. These darling girls, now in high school, never lived nearby.

I didn’t get to enjoy much of their early speaking years, so I’m definitely making the most of any time I have with Beckett and Brooks.

The quality of Beckett’s and even Brooks’ French pronunciation keeps surprising me. I know it has to do with brain plasticity (or something else I know nothing about), but I wonder if it might also be because they haven’t yet convinced themselves that it’s hard. They take it as it comes, one sound, one word at a time. There’s a lesson in that.

In this time of unending, heartbreaking news, I’m trying to speak kindly in all languages I know or attempt. And more than ever, I’m seeking out kindness in the voices I listen to, wherever my path takes me.

I recommend the podcast “Everything Happens with Kate Bowler” or check out her website here. The best introduction to it may be the interview I heard on another podcast that is absolutely worth your time: “On Being with Krista Tippett” here’s a link to it.

I hope they inspire you, refresh you, and bring a smile to your face. Wishing you, as always, grace and peace–and kindness.