My world has been changing in recent months. What began as a subtle crumbling of the earth beneath my feet, became an outright maelstrom of seismic activity toward the end of June.
Timing was strange to be sure.
After months of carefully transitioning and reworking an outwardly attractive life into a life that could also prove inwardly rewarding, the pragmatism of my thoughts and actions were suddenly infused with one superfluous yet overwhelming need...
I had to learn Danish.
No one was more surprised by this than me. Having only mastered travel Spanish and a smattering of Italian phrases up to this point in my life, I would not have envisioned learning one of the world's most difficult languages as top of my bucket list.
The first time I heard it, I was listening to a man speak to his son. As I listened to the rich tones and throaty expression, something shifted in my brain. I wanted to feel those words in my thoughts. I wanted to hear them issue from my own mouth.
Like all languages, Danish is unique in its nuances. The way words look does not necessarily resemble the way they sound. The way they are said does not necessarily reveal their true meaning. And because it is also a tonal language, the meaning can make subtle shifts depending on context.
Simultaneously forthright and subtle in its expression, the efficiency of the language belies its poetic center. There is a certain humor in its constructs, in the way the words come together: sometimes backwards, sometimes forwards, mirroring thought and action, word and deed.
But like most things that come with great difficulty, there is great reward in the process of learning.
Such as the moment I discovered the English word lion is spelled løve in Danish.
The intersection of these two words was more than happy coincidence in my mind. It signified the moment wherein the past and future I had been trying to reconcile for months successfully merged. That moment was not just about learning Danish; it was about my life overall.
The lion is regal and majestic, yet wild and untamed, and the lion's image symbolically empowers and edifies. The Danish word løve looks like the English word that describes the deepest and most intractable human emotion.
So if a lion is løve, then true love could also be a lion...an intimate protection against the pain of the world; a warrior-brother to stand side by side through everything; but mostly a friend and equal with whom to embrace what life is waiting to offer.
If such a connection between two languages could exist, then such a love might certainly exist.
Suddenly, the possibilities seem endless.
