Over at Braided Way: Relearning the Alphabet

The lovely folks at Braided Way: Faces and Voices of Spiritual Practice have posted my essay “Relearning the Alphabet,” originally published in Parabola. I’m happy to have this long-ago creation now available online.

Each time we speak, we give birth. Something of our soul goes forth into the world, embodied in air. 

It is remarkable that this indispensable tool of the thinking soul, so vital to our adult sense of self-awareness and to our intellectual development, is given to us in utter unconsciousness. Speech comes to us from an unknown realm of wisdom, a realm that has traditionally been identified with the divine, and with the divine sacrifice that makes life on earth possible.

I do hope you’ll take a look.