A Little Wind To Clean the Sky :: Exactly nine days ago I was sitting on this beach with him, watching giant waves crash into giant rocks. It was really windy. Unconsciously, I think I repeated outloud some 15 times, “It’s so windy, It’s just so windy… And oh my gosh, THOSE WAVES. Goodness, it’s just so windy.” Talk about seriously annoying and obvious commentary.

His English is okay, but far from that of a native speaker. One of the things I really love about communicating with a person whose first language differs from my own is the simplifying of language. In an attempt to be best understood, I notice I choose simpler words to get my point across and in some instances this forces me to be more direct and honest with my thoughts and feelings.

Another thing that happens is that the other person, with fewer English words available to him will choose creative combinations of words to communicate. And sometimes, that unexpected word choice, even when subtle, does something quite special to a simple statement. Such was the case with the response that my endless repetitive comments about the wind that day at the beach garnered…

“Wind is not always bad. Sometimes you need the wind to clean the sky so that the sun can shine.”