№4 — Acquiring and practicing listening skills — Words make up our world. Can you imagine not being able to put a name to an object or a feeling? Of course, you can. Take a look at a baby or toddler. Small children can’t name anything surrounding them. Until they start talking, they are limited. After that, opportunities…

Nowhere to run. — We enter the city, and my ears can't believe the silence laid behind them. My little guy with a big heart and bigger lungs is still sitting in the back seat of our car. Buckled against any mischievous escape attempt, I hope. Yet, he isn't making any sounds. Anymore. Normally…

I felt a passenger staring at a train whooshing by. — The first time I heard love — the kind I had never experienced before — I was sitting in a cold, dark room, heart knocking in my throat. It was February. The winter fell on her knees, and I felt just about the same. After a month of going from…

It happened in kindergarten. — I was never popular, except for that one time in kindergarten. Winter Celebration festivity, kids lined up on the stage, dressed up, holding handbells. I sat there, not moving, barely breathing, terrified someone would see it. Even worse, hear it. Then, I accidentally moved. Whaaaat’s thaaaat? They all circled the…

If you did, you must be really nosy. Or just really into breathing techniques. — Tell me, through which nostril are you breathing right now? Cover one and breathe through the other. Switch and notice. With one unobstructed nostril, you’re breathing easier than with the other. That’s the one currently more active. Don’t worry, your nose is not stuck like that. Here’s a little nasal awareness Breathing is asymmetric and…

Only children have this power, don’t they? — I hear your whole life flashes in front of your eyes right before you die. But how about when a three-year-old gives you a kick that sends you to the very last day of your life? -I love you… I whispered while watching him playing on his own and calculating…

Thank god for the second kisses. — I had practiced my first kiss for 14 years and it still sucked big time when it happened. At two, I practiced it on my one-year-old cousin. Grandma left us together, unattended, in the same crib. When she returned, he was crying, with teeth marks on his apple cheeks, while…

You might come out changed, even if it won’t last long. — Silence is the best therapy. Or is it the forest? Out in the city, the noise never stops. The chase never ceases. We worry so much about anything and everything. We search for happiness, things, persons to love us back, lost time, forgotten thoughts. We keep comparing ourselves to others…

Who would steal a child’s sled? — If I’ll ever look at this snapshot when I’m old and senile, I’ll recall it as the day I wanted to go to the seaside but made it to the mountains. (Note to senile me — the Carpathian mountains) Until then, it’s a Kodak moment from when I took my…