This morning I was up early and couldn’t see any evidence of the newspaper on our front steps. Without the usual words on paper to guide my first steps into the day, I took my coffee and opened the door to the deck to listen to the rain falling softly outside. What a comforting, cleansing sound. Resting gently in this sound, I picked up a book I hadn’t for some time and read an entry meant for this day, August 23. One particular phrase caught my attention: “If you have lived all your life hearing another voice in your heart…..” I smiled.

These words were written by Sarah Ban Breathnach in her book Simple Abundance. She wrote the phrase to describe poet Amy Clampitt who published her first full length book of poetry when she was 63. Although she had been a poet all her life, she found, what she referred to as her authentic voice, in her mid-fifties. I thought of all the people, not necessarily poets, who might describe themselves in a similar fashion.

I thought of the many other “voices” beside my own that I have heard over the years. I also thought of the times I have forgotten to listen to the voice that was in my own heart. Like most people, for many years, I carried the voice of a parent in my head and I tried to follow that voice for all kinds of reasons, some of them helpful and some not. I listened to the voices of what was considered ‘right’ or ‘proper’ for a young woman of my generation. These voices also fit for me at times and at others led me down paths that were sometimes painful and certainly not authentic to my heart-voice. As a person who has always found a home within the church, I have listened to voices who would have me fit into a mold that was a certain brand of Christian that was too narrow for me, that did not allow the freedom or room I heard in the voice of Jesus. Stepping out from those voices often felt like a heart-breaking. But as I walked further away and listened more deeply within, I knew the voice I was hearing as my own led to the path to which I was called. I could say a prayer of blessing for those voices which did not reflect my own. I could offer a prayer of gratitude for my own walk, my own hearing.

Sometime it takes immense quiet to be able to hear our own heart-voices. Whether it is the din of sounds that fly at us at every turn in this 21st century world we travel or the sheer volume of information that gets stuffed into our daily living, it can be difficult to be in tune with the voice that is ours and ours alone. What is your heart-voice saying to you these days? Can you hear its unique sound among all the others? How are you following the lead it offers you? Are you able to turn from all the voices that might be offering you sage advice and hear your own true, authentic self speaking?

It seems to me, when we are quiet enough to listen, truly listen, the voice that speaks deepest within us is the voice of Spirit dancing with our own. That voice which emanates from our core is the one that was birthed within us and continues to work to be given speech through our living. Whether through poetry or parenting, through music or mission, through humor or humility, we each have a voice that is needed for the healing of the world.

Perhaps today is the day to let your voice be heard.