Saturday, August 21, 2010

Silence....

We are starting something new at our place. We are set up for horses. We have horses. We have more horses than we can ride. About 2 months ago a young girl came out and began riding one of our horses. It's been fun to watch her smile, laugh and learn how to handle Gizmo; a charming POA Baihley broke a couple years ago.
Last week another girl came out to our house to get introduced to the horses and today she began her horse lessons with Baihley. Our goal is to have a place where kids can come and learn to ride that otherwise couldn't afford horses and horse lessons. So far it's been quite the fun adventure. There is something unique about this young girl; her mother is deaf. Last week as we sat around the table and talked, it made me very aware of silence. The young girl would sign to her mother what I was saying and they would be talking back and forth; in silence. Silence seems so loud sometimes it's almost like someone is shouting. I watched the girl and her mother and the facial expressions. I haven't been around many deaf people in my life. When I lived with a neighbor lady after my father died, her grown daughter came back from college to live at home. She was deaf. I would come home and walk in the kitchen and the TV would be on but no noise. Edith got used to having the closed caption on and didn't even bother turning the volume up. It seemed real odd for me; very natural for both of them.
Today, as the girl and her step-father who is also deaf, were talking at the close of the lesson, it made me very aware of the silence that was filled with words. Perhaps they were words I couldn't understand, but they were words I could see. Her expressions made her signing come alive. I was even beginning to understand what she was saying.
We are warned in the Bible to watch the words we say. I know God allowed those who cannot hear a special sense. The way of expression lives out their words much more meaningful than sometimes the words we use. I used to love to watch my friend Karen sign at concerts. Every once in awhile she would come on stage and sign the words to a song. The meaning was never missed; the expressions, the gestures used in signing made the words jump into our hearts not simply our ears.
I am looking forward to getting to know the family more but also to learn how to make my words be words of expression lived out not simply words spoken. How can my words leap into people's hearts? How can I live out what I say and not simply speak? May I speak by my actions; the physical sign of the inward changes in my life. Not just say "I love the Lord" but let the actions; my sign language so to speak, say "I live the Lord."
She left this morning after she cleaned tack. She isn't paying for her horse time, she is working it off. And by the smile on her face and the giggles of two girls working on the saddle, it wasn't work at all.