Three posts back, five photos were published showcasing Ravi's attentive absorption of everything she experiences with her family whose loving presence offers much more than sheltering a vulnerable child's sense of safety from experiencing harm. Before attending school, interaction with family constitutes a small child's entire world. Each photo chosen conveys the natural eagerness with which Ravi's emotional intelligence (between twelve and eighteen months of age) soaked in everything she saw, heard and felt as we shared life experiences, together.
So, what happens when fate severs the connection of an intelligent young mind from everything and everyone who feels the excruciating torment of being utterly incapable of sheltering a beloved child who feels lost, alone and abandoned while still in their midst?
Annie's soulful communion with Helen was a godsend to the entire Keller family.
If we look back at that post, which captures five snapshots of Ravi's innate intelligence contemplating everything she sees, hears and experiences, we'll catch glimmers of insight spotlighting the inquisitive, absorptive nature of Ravi's mind as well as her spirit's natural enjoyment of life, both of which proved true of Helen's mind and spirit before illness robbed her of all meaningful connection with those she loved and whose guidance Helen's lost sense of safety must surely have craved at the highly vulnerable age of nineteen months ... and now, having poured today's stream of intuitive awareness into this post, I wonder how Helen's relationship with Annie may have developed differently had this seven year old wild child not enjoyed 19 months of healthy mental, emotional and spiritual communion with loved ones previous to the illness, which swirled the sunny side of her spirit's need to thrive
into the dark abyss of silence, which offered no choice other than surviving, 24/7, until the presence of a gifted-new-friend offered Helen's relentless frustration with reason to sense her intuitive powers readiness to break through her lengthy period of isolation as would a caterpillar, which, following instinctive need to construct a cocoon, sought to undergo the most trying stages of metamorphosis until such time as Helen felt empowered to hold the world in the palm of her hand as naturally as had felt true before fear of loss grew so overwhelming as to have gripped her brain's agile ability to sense soulful connection into a choke hold, where enveloped within naught but darkness and silence, a sweet natured child fell victim to depths of anguished madness too confounding for the sighted to fathom ...
Rather than sighting a rest station directly ahead, tooday's stream of insights leads my active mind to ask: Is it possible that by nineteen months of age, Helen's innately intuitive brain may have absorbed morsels of experiential insight necessary to heighten seven her perceptive awareness of Annie's valiant attempts to connect with a seven year old child's fertile, though fallow, processor by running water over Helen's hand followed by spelling out the word w-a-t-e-r repeatedly into her up turned palm until the dormancy of Helen's intelligence reawakened to absorb Annie's heartfelt never give up attitude as her own?
Otherwise how was it possible that by the end of that glorious day Helen's think tank had engaged with Annie's processor in such a mutually enriching manner as to have transferred 30 words from Annie's fingertips into Helen's open palm, which translating into human-to-human understanding, were deposited into a hopeful child's renewed sense of ever-hungry, openly receptive memory bank?
I imagine every person in the Keller family awakening the next morning to the wondrous hope that after five years of isolated, inner tension carried forward ever since the natural buoyancy of loving interconnectedness had been traumatically severed by illness, would magically desolve ... I mean, seriously, what greater sense of awe can life offer to the spirit, which had accepted defeat, other than to awaken, one day, to reconnect with hope, thought to have been irretrievably lost ...
I imagine intermittent spurts of hope freeing deeply suppressed emotions that tumble forth in such a disorganized manner as to render the voice speechless until the logical portion of the processor's intelligence indicates readiness to regain its ability to rebalance its soulful sense of serenity, again ... Ohhmmm ...
Momentarily, Will and I are about to board a flight home after enjoying a long weekend on the coast, celebrating Ray's sixth birthday, and so here's one last thought that comes to mind before switching my iPad to function in airplane mode:
Though I've grown toward consciously grooming my brain to function as a well balanced whole come what may, my spirit's sense of awe remains amazed at the number of conflicting emotions that share mind space with logic while my processor works to maintain a self respecting sense of inner strength, which proves necessary if my chosen attitude of serenity is to be quickly regained whenever a flash from the past stimulates a rise in defensive anxiety that needs to be consciously soothed in time out (along with the undermining nature of undeserved guilt). thus freeing my newly re-balanced processor to roll out the red carpet in warm welcome whenever opportunity feels ready to express (and absorb) whatever comes naturally, heart to heart ...
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