Language: Enabler or Barrier?

Its been long since I wrote anything: lack of time, lack of inspiration- the list of excuses is non-exhaustive.

This morning I woke up after a very comfortable sleep that lasted about 14 hours. I woke up fresh, happy, relaxed and with absolutely nothing to do. I switched on my laptop and went to my favorite online movie streaming site. I was browsing through when I saw a thumbnail for a movie titled, 'Instructions Not Included'.

I figured it must be along the lines of 'Three Men and a Baby' and decided 'What the heck? Not like I have anything better to do!'. The movie started and the opening credits rolled in... in Spanish. 

Within the first 10 minutes I realized, this was all en Espanol! The 11th minute, however, they introduced a cute little half-American baby. And thus, starts the story of a care-free rake and his daughter, who changed him for the better within 7 years that he raised her. There were a few lines spoken in English and few words of Spanish that I understood- but as I sat through the movie for those 120 minutes, the language barrier didn't seem to matter. 

I laughed, I cried and I even found myself hoping the ugly custody battle between the male protagonist of the movie and the then-hippie blood mother of the child, would end in a 'Happily-ever-after' of sorts. It didn't (I'm not big on spoilers). And as the closing credits rolled in, I found myself thinking 'Did I just sit through a movie I had no chance of understanding and understood it better than words could have let on?'

I, at 26, realized that emotions go beyond words. We spend all our lives waiting to hear the perfect words, reacting at words that make us uncomfortable and ever so often, forget to feel the feelings the words were meant to communicate. We overlook small gestures but hang on to every word anyone says to us. It doesn't matter what someone says to us- their actions speak louder than words. So, the next time, my boyfriend forgets to say 'I Love You', I'll remember to think of the love he shows me through each minute of every day.