I got few words

A typical conversation I might have with one of my young friends here at the Day Center:

Ryan: "What's up Daniel. How are you?"
Daniel: Good. How are you?
"very good."
Hey, can you play basketball with me pretty please.
"Yes."
let's play horse (obligat)"
ok. we play... I say "almost" and "way to go!" about 15 times.
I don't want to play anymore.
"ok"

[at the swing]
Hey Ryan (they most likely call me josh first...then I help them remember it's ryan), can you push me on the swing?
"yes. Hard or no?"
very hard!
[swinging]...
"harder?"
yes!...
stop!!

[During lunch]
"Hey, how was school today?"
good
"Do you like it?"
no
"why not?"
;lkas;lkfhasdf;lkh (a response I don't understand)
"oh...
How many brothers and sisters do you have?"
4 sisters and 3 brothers. Big huh.
"very big.
How was your weekend?"
good. ;lkajs;dlfk I played football a;lkjs;dflkjasdf and walked a;lkja;sldkfj
"very good...
alright. see you later Daniel. Have a good night."


So as you can tell I can't have the most profound conversation with these kids. And yet it's good. I'm really enjoying learning to love the kids without the ability to really speak with them verbally. It makes me communicate love and care and interest with my actions...not just my words. it's awesome. teaching me a lot about what it means to be human. to need community. to need time with people. to need shared experience. to need attention. it's great. In many ways talk costs much less than actions and reaps accordingly. Talk doesn't have to be cheap, but it has certainly been that at times.

I'm pretty sure this is something I will learn more about as a parent, but I'm so glad I'm being exposed to it now. In the "adult world" we seem to rely so heavily on words. And complicated words at that. Words obviously aren't bad; it's just cool and I think important to know I can deeply connect with someone without the ability to say more than "hey. how are you?" and "you have two brothers? cool."