Glowing

By Aaron Birbrower

Artwork by Molly McGarvey

Founders’ note: Not everyone is born with the ability to use their voice. Not everyone can easily communicate their thoughts, feelings, hopes and dreams. On this page, we’re give nonspeaking people in our community the opportunity to be heard. The authors are students at Mouth to Hand Learning Center in Mount Kisco. You can read about Mouth to Hand in the article “Force of Nature” on our website or in the September/October 2023 issue.

Seeing the sun for the first time.

The blinding white light of joy.

Happiness burst from a tsunami of incandescent longing

A kaleidoscope of the colors that light my world.

Rainbow feelings in a crystal world…

Colors exist I did not know.

It may be vortices of love that wrap around me

Calm, like ripples in a still lake.

Laughter fills my heart and bubbles out and begins to make me shine.

Can you see me now?

Author’s note: I wrote Glowing in an attempt to express the joy of being freed from the silent cage. For the first eighteen years of my life, I had no ability to communicate. Then Mouth to Hand came into my life, and my whole world changed. Now instead of living in the darkness, I live in beautiful light.

This article was published in the July/August 2026 edition of Connect to Northern Westchester.