Wednesday 4 September 2024

 Research suggests that we start to recognize our mother's voice from the womb around 31 weeks. 

As soon as we're born, our language skills begin to develop. From birth to six months, we mostly coo, cry, and murmur as the vocal cords mature. Then we advance to babbling, until words start around 18 months. 

Eventually, words lead to sentences and soon, we forget the time when we couldn't speak at all.

 Children are less afraid to say what they're feeling than adults. It's only as we get older that we learn to censor ourselves. 

Maybe we do it because we're simply afraid to rock the boat. Or maybe we're terrified that by saying what we feel, or asking for what we need, we will cause more trouble than there is to begin with. 

So we choose over and over again to tamp down our voices, to stuff it so far down it can make us sick, until we can't anymore and we have to let it out. 

Even if it's the hardest thing in the world.