Phoebe: “Are there pictures?” (Holding my book)
Me: “No there are no pictures. See, just words.”
Phoebe: “No, only A-B”
Me: “See, words.”
Phoebe: “No A-B!!”
Me: “Oh, A-B-C’s! Yes, only letters.”

Could you imagine a movie without a soundtrack? Often it is the music that captures the moment – more than the visual or the dialogue. Yet our lives do not come with a soundtrack. Yes, occasionally songs get stuck in our head. But in my brain the song is almost always from one of Ivy’s cd’s (“He’s Wild, He’s…). Worse the cd is scratched and only keeps repeating the same line again and again…  But in the movies music can take the scene to another level. The anticipation in Jaws or the adventure of Indiana Jones or the darkness of Vader. The music drives up our emotions and our belief.

Without the soundtrack? It would be like seeing a book page as only letters, rather than words.

The power of the word is not from the letters, but that a word refers to something beyond itself. The word friend is not six letters. But it is relationship. A connection important to all of us – though we each picture it differently. And this image gives words their power.

Through this, words become names. Connecting the static page to real life. To our lives. Grass is not five letters, but green and lush – a field we have walked bare foot through. For that matter Ivy is no longer a plant (in my mind) but a kindergartener.  Just as Phoebe is not a Friends’ character, but a two-year old who love books. And soon Darcy Esther will be a face etched in my heart! **

We live life. It can become the grind. And yet, there is something more. The mundane stacks together. Do not take things at face value. But allow the music of life, the story of life to carry you. And realize it is pointing to something more.

** We have finally settled on a name for our third little girl, who will arrive when she is ready around December 10th. We chose the name Darcy Esther for multiple reasons. It keeps the “e” sound and two syllable of Ivy and Phoebe. Also we knew a brilliant young lady named Darcy in Augusta (As I wrote, words take on context for each of us. Names can be ruined and redeemed!). Of course Esther was redeemed long ago, when she bravely faced  such a time as this…