What Langauge Speaks to Your Heart?

"If you talk to a person in a language they understand, it goes to the head,  if you speak in their language, it goes to the heart."- Nelson Mandela

[caption id="" align="alignleft" width="296"] King Kamehameha IV born Alexander 'Iolani Liholiho[/caption]

What language speaks to your heart?  What is it that makes your soul come alive?

"We are a royal school."  said the Rev. Dr. Malcolm Chun '72 now an Episcopal priest.  He recently spoke in a chapel honoring our founding patron King Kamehameha IV, his emphasis on faith, health and education.  It was the King, who, in his dedication to the faith, translated the Book of Common Prayer and a portion of the Hymnal into the Hawaiian Language, and welcomed Bishop Thomas Nettleship Staley and company in 1861 with a charge to establish a Church in the Hawaiian Kingdom.  It was the King's commitment to educating Hawaiians and immigrants that let to the establishment of the schools whose legacy is 'Iolani.   In this chapel service we opened chapel and read scripture in Hawaiian, and closed with the blessing in Hawaiian. We did this principally to honor the king to whom we owe our very existence.  After the chapel service, a teacher came up to me and said,  “it is so wonderful to hear Hawaiian spoken in chapel.”

There is a significance to that statement since in the history of the Hawaiian people and its language, post western contact, there was conscious effort even by some Christians missionaries to "civilize" and westernize the indigenous people by suppressing their language and culture.  At one time, hula was banned and the use of English in schools was emphasized over education in Hawaiian or bilingual education. Some of our kupuna even stopped speaking Hawaiian at home and to their children in order to be more accepted in the wider culture. It is not until the language and the culture are at risk of extinction that a Hawaiian renaissance occurs and continues even to this day.  Hawaiian remains a living language- it is something that is very much a part of the heritage of these islands and the history of 'Iolani.

From that brief interaction, an essential question struck me: "What is it like to hear the language that speaks to your heart?"

Whenever we hear our own language, whether it is the one we speak or the one that best speaks to us, our hearts and minds are all the more open.  Nelson Mandela said, "If you talk to a person in a language they understand, it goes to the head,  if you speak in their language, it goes to the heart."

What language speaks to your heart? Maybe it’s in dance performed to an ancient chant; or perhaps cherished words in a mother tongue, maybe it is in the laughter of friends; in the kiss of rain, the whisper of wind, the roar of the ocean, or the song of sunrise.  Musician Carlos Santana Said,  “The most valuable possession we own is an open heart”.

The challenge for all of us is to open our hearts and listen:  Listen for the language that speaks to your heart.  What language makes your soul come alive?