Heart Strings

Do you remember the first sound you ever heard?

Though it may have receded from our consciousness, its repetitions echo emotionally all our lives, soothing when the rhythm is slow, exciting when it's fast. Even the first words we try to speak imitate that sound -- ma ma, da da, boo boo. And later, as adults we are soothed by poetry or music written with the same rhythmic ba-BUM, ba-BUM sound.

The sound is a mother's heartbeat.

For a baby in the womb the mother's heartbeat performs the ultimate cradlesong of peace and plenty. The womb is a snug, familiar landscape, an envelope of rhythmic warmth, and the mother's heartbeat a steady clarion of safety.

And for the rest of our lives, everything important becomes heartfelt, from a broken heart to how we feel deep in our heart.