Communication is a word that, at least in English…lacks in poetic beauty. The word communication is so matter-of-fact. It brings thoughts of information, updates, and obligatory messages. We all know that communication is essential to every human relationship. People hire myriad professionals to help them to communicate with others.

These communication professionals could be therapists, speech writers, mediators, book editors, graphic designers, or hostage negotiators. The whole world is all about communication, and becomes more and more about it with each passing day. We can think of how abundant the methods of communication available. Some that we wish would leave us alone.

There are the words, and the pictures and the stories essential to communication, but there are subtler forms of communication, too. There are softer forms of messages, which come through many senses that we have but can’t name or don’t acknowledge, but that tell us all that our bodies need to know.

There are many things that create understanding, so many things that make us feel, so many things that can be heard without words, things you can see with eyes closed. These ways of knowing confirm that our minds are not in our heads, that communication is not merely cerebral.

What I can feel or not feel in your hug is telling me more than you could speak about longing, sorrow, protection, or tenderness or about apathy or discomfort.

How do we know that the music is tragic when there are no voices? We feel the frequency and it changes us. Our bodies empathize with the sound and respond to the vibration.

The eyes exude sparks of joy, ask imploring questions, present a challenge, reveal fears, state your defiance, offer compassion, expose haughtiness, and can confirm or deny what the mouth speaks.

Your gentle hand on their shoulder is enough to release a flood of tears, to give courage, enough to ease loneliness, or confirm approval, solidarity and empathy.

We must not forget that the body knows more than the mind.

When we are young we wonder if we will be good kisser, lol. Do you remember this? Then we learn it is not so much a matter of how you kiss, as who you are kissing… no one can explain it to the uninitiated. The body just inherently gets the message, the communication, at the time.

Yes, communication is important. It is a vast arena. Yet it can be as subtle as wink, as brash as a spit-wad to the face. Communication can be as piercing in it’s silence as it is when spoken in shrill tones. On the other hand, there is a universal language that needs no translator, because feeling and intention can be conveyed in all sorts of ways to others and to yourself.

Everything you do is communication. Every way you feel is communication. Listening to yourself does not require ears. Quietly observe the messages. Trust yourself.