How To Recognize Your Own True Voice

Over the past few days, friends and clients have shared with me their thoughts about Melissa’s essay, The Undertow.  One person said that she was reminded of the following poem, which echoes the struggle Melissa wrote of. . .

The Journey

Mary Oliver

    One day you finally knew

    what you had to do, and began,

    though the voices around you

    kept shouting

    their bad advice--

    though the whole house

    began to tremble

    and you felt the old tug

    at your ankles.

    "Mend my life!"

    each voice cried.

    But you didn't stop.

    You knew what you had to do,

    though the wind pried

    with its stiff fingers

    at the very foundations,

    though their melancholy

    was terrible.

    It was already late

    enough, and a wild night,

    and the road full of fallen

    branches and stones.

    But little by little,

    as you left their voices behind,

    the stars began to burn

    through the sheets of clouds,

    and there was a new voice

    which you slowly

    recognized as your own,

    that kept you company

    as you strode deeper and deeper

    into the world,

    determined to do

    the only thing you could do--

    determined to save

    the only life you could save.

I especially like the lines,

You knew what you had to do. . .

and there was a new voice

which you slowly

recognized as your own

As with Melissa, as with so many of us (all of us really), there are “voices” that cause us to doubt our abilities and ourselves.  Voices that paralyze us.  Voices that “sound” real and yet, the fears they instill in us are remote possibilities at best, illusory at worst.  And, still, we give them power.

Melissa was able to quiet the violent whispers of doubt and simply mother Bella.  She knew what she had to do.

What is something that you know you have to do, yet, haven’t mustered the courage because you’ve paid too much attention to the “voices” that say “don’t. . .why bother?”

Why do you give them power?

Are there voices you’re ignoring?  Voices that speak of work that generates curiosity and excitement?

What would your daily life look like, if you quieted the voices that sabotage you and instead welcomed the voices that encourage you to risk?

Why not. . .begin to do today what you know you have to do and let that be your legacy for this day. . .and then, take it up again tomorrow. . .and tomorrow. . .