Yo-Yo Ma's Wordless Language

A friend asked me the other day what it was that I like so much about Yo-Yo Ma. Not really knowing what to say, I simply replied that it was because his music is so thick with emotion. As I listened to one of his albums repeatedly today, I finally found the answer. While the depth of the emotion conveyed may be one reason to love his music, I think it entails so much more than that. I imagine Yo-Yo Ma to be a man of few words. Honestly, how could you ever find words to be sufficient if you can play like that? Anything that you would ever need to say could be better said with your bow. I think there are some matters of the heart that cannot be explained unless it is through wordless emotion. I like the thought of pouring the thoughts of your heart without actually ever forming syllables. It's that deep desire to know and be known that makes music such a powerful force. It is raw, vulnerable, and never lies. It is a wordless language... how beautiful the thought.

Keith & Kristyn Getty "In Christ Alone"

I can think of no better song to sing this Resurrection Sunday, and although the lyrics are bittersweet to me, the truth brings freedom in my soul. I can sing this song from the depths of my heart... praise be to the Lord, for his redemptive and restoring work in my life. He is risen. He is risen indeed.

"No guilt of life, no fear in death

This is the power of Christ in me

From life's first cry to final breath

Jesus commands my destiny

no power of hell, no scheme of man

Can ever pluck me from His hand

'til He returns or calls me home

Here in the power of Christ I'll stand."

"Watermark" by Sleeping At Last

You were carved out of the sea
Watermarked by your ancestry
In a tug of war between the tide and me
What felt like loss was a victory
Cause you were swept ashore like bottles holding prayers

You were carved out of the earth
Safe and sound in your second birth
Gravity has tied your ankle to the shore
As a lighthouse tamed the endless ocean war

Against the calming light our silhouettes are changing shape
The stories you've been told have made you brave

Such inheritance was formed within the sand
Like the shells you gather in the safety of your hands
Dive in with your eyes closed
For the life you were born to claim
And the water will be paralyzed
By the courage you contain
And the flutter of your earnest heart
It will fill the silent seas
And all will be restored in your memory

A Thawing Heart

For sometime now I have been pondering the question, "Why should my heart not dance?" When I read this question posed by Orual, I have realized that I am more like her and less like Psyche:

"And my struggle was this. You may well believe that I had set out sad enough; I came on a sad errand. Now, flung at me like frolic or insolence, there came as if it were a voice-no words- but if you made it into words it would be, "Why should your heart not dance?" It's the measure of my folly that my heart almost answered, "Why not?"

I have tasted life's bitterness, and have spent more time questioning than praising. I admit to having been in a battle against my thawing heart. A thawed heart means a move towards transparency. There is something incredibly desirable and frightening about that prospect.

As I come to understand my Redeemer's love for me, as He reveals His truths and promises to me, my heart can't help but thaw. Just as in nature, spring follows winter.

Spring is my favorite season. I love the delicate flowers, the brisk mornings, and the singular blades of grass. Although it's never predictable in Colorado, the marks of a thawing are always evident.

Spring is my heart right now. The seeds have been planted, the roots have grown deep. There are signs of life above the surface. I am being grown to look more like Psyche and less like Orual. My heart is learning to  dance.