#shortandsweetandaboutyou

[play this while you read... #ironandwine #itspretty]

hey stranger with the tried eyes; the tried, beautiful eyes that looked and looked away.

you are not a mystery to me, in this moment unguarded, i see you.

your plan face, no outstanding features to compliment or even mention;

yes, you are like me.

our differences i could count on one hand...

the first being the way we dress- simply superficial 

and the last being that i kept my gaze on you 

and if you had not been so eager to look away 

you would have seen me smile,

at you

=sometimes strangers just need smiles=

#adventurehands

its been seven days since i started my 2.5 year journey into the world of Australian Sign Language. I find it creative and enchanting... it's a transparent space where your communication failures and successes are brought to the surface and there is something very vulnerable in that. Our teachers are deaf and we communication with our hands, with our face. It's a learning environment unlike any other.

In many ways i feel like a child again, yet now i'm completely aware that i'm discovering things for the first time. Every common noise is heightened; the sound of pen to paper, someone drinking from a water bottle, even breath and breathing but the silence is still louder than any of that. The room is full of  the sound of things we've never put thought into before, because we can hear them. I can't imagine what it would be like to never hear someone sing or to feel the beat but never hear the music...
Even now I'm starting to see things differently, I feel a change in me already- the way i see things, my senses and the ability to observe and read behaviors. Its a powerful thing to be able to communicate effectively in this way and this study will open up, for me, a whole new community of people to know and love. 
A language so expressive and beautiful should be learnt by all. Imagine how much more effective we  could communicate if we were aware and controlled our face and hands, our body language.

the silence is deafening, deafeningly beautiful...