wat die hart van vol is…

…loop die mond van oor.

Breyten Breytenbach wrote a poem with this as title (Translation: For the mouth speaks what the heart is full of). It is a raw, but beautiful, tribute to his mother that has always hit close to home for me.

I have learnt many amazing things from my mother, more than I would dare to try and summarise here. However, there are two truths that I would highlight as having catalysed and directed my passions:

1. For the mouth speaks what the heart is full of.

My mom didn’t come up with this one herself – she borrowed it from Jesus: “Make a tree good and its fruit will be good, or make a tree bad and its fruit will be bad, for a tree is recognized by its fruit…For the mouth speaks what the heart is full of. A good man brings good things out of the good stored up in him…”

For me the encouragement that has always been implicit in this charge is to fill myself with whatever is true, whatever is noble, whatever is right, whatever is pure, whatever is lovely, whatever is admirable, whatever is excellent or praiseworthy—to meditate on such things until they become part of who I am and the mark I leave on this world.

2. Spreek Lewe // Speak Life

If I had to describe my mom in two words I would pick these ones. On countless occasions she has challenged me to live in an awareness of the fact that words are powerful and that the things I choose to say about the world can, and will, shape it – either giving life or perpetuating the emptiness (see Jesus’ ref. to empty words above…). As my passion for words, and the worlds we create with them, continues to grow I am ever-grateful for the reverence that my mom cultivated in me from a young age. dankie mamma xxx