Many years ago now – who can be sure how long – a friend of mine and her daughter came to stay with me – they needed a soft place to land and this seemed opportune.
I’ve always had that quote ‘if you build it, they will come’ (Kevin Costner in some lovely movie) and that’s how I wanted this house to be – a soft place to land for me and mine.
So they landed here for a while.
It was lovely and we were happy, or so I thought.
It was delightful having young energy – my friend and her daughter – here and the chaos that ensued made me happy. We were busy, two adults living their lives, a host of animals ruling said lives and a toddler bossing the whole brood!
For some reason today I was reminded of a period of time – it felt long – whilst they were here, that I completely lost my voice … nothing more than a whisper would come out.
Anyone who knows me knows that words and speaking are not a problem.
At the time I lent into the quiet and resigned myself to not speaking for a while – I think I remember feeling somewhat contemplative at this position in which I found myself. It wouldn’t hurt to be quiet for a bit, would it?
It turns out that our voice, OUR voices, do matter.
Never let someone else speak for you. Your one precious life is yours and yours alone. Being quiet is quite different from letting other people tell ‘your story’.
I’ve never lost my voice before or since then.
Tell your story, tell it all, they will understand, you will be fine.