Afraid to Write

We all have something important inside of us that needs to come out for the good of humanity. We want to say it, we want to write it, but we hold back….Why?

I fight these feelings all the time, as evidenced by the lulls in writing. Perhaps it’s fear that what I say or think isn’t that important so just better keep it to yourself. It’s not all that important otherwise somebody else would have said it…but what if you are that somebody?  What if you are the somebody who with your words could impact another in a way to change our world for the better? Think Martin Luther King, Mother Teresa, Oprah and the list goes on.

Well, I’m nobody like them; however they began as nobodies and kept speaking their heart and change began. Every river begins with a small underground trickle which becomes a stream, a creek and eventually the river they flow into.

Don’t dam up your words, your well, which wants to flow sending good waters to thirsty weary people dying inside for affection, attention, approval, encouragement they need. You can help quench their thirst and cause them to grow again.

Actually, I wrote this article about myself. I have been holding back the waters in my well, fighting what might come out, whether people would like the water I provide.

Join me now.

Let’s unclog our wells and send healing waters of words to the people around us.

Voices in the Wilderness

Have you ever had something you thought was important to say, that needed to be said, that no one else was saying, but needed to be heard?

It would help people if they could hear it, it could change the direction of their life, but they were nowhere near you, you didn’t even know who they were, you couldn’t summon them to hear your words, and frankly, they probably wouldn’t even recognize what you had to say was for them.

Just a voice…a voice out in the wilderness -being absorbed only by the mossy bark on the trees and getting soaked up by the fallen leaves and tramped on.

We live in a big wilderness it seems, yet there are many voices calling out to us.

Many of the voices are loud, clamoring, demanding for attention. They hackle, yell, demean, shame, put-down, confuse, conflict, and torment, and cause us to worry and fear. They even try to make us think bad thoughts about and hate other people-including ourselves!

But, if we keep walking, keep listening and get where it is quiet again, and really listen, we can hear a still small voice saying, ‘this is the way, walk in it’. It will be unassuming, patient, kind, gentle, leading, guiding, encouraging, hopeful, filled with wisdom; it might even be a gentle warning, but it will cause us to be at peace and rest– not filled with turmoil when we hear it. It will inspire us to do good and think good about other people.

I have heard all of these voices. I have heard the voice of fear and worry and shame and hate, but I have also heard the voice of kindness, grace, hope and peace. I hear them every day in my walk through the wilderness of life.

I know what each of them feels like and what it does to me when I pay heed.

The choice is mine, which voices I choose to listen to.

Some are so tempting and convincing — to entice me to worry and fret about something I have no control over—which is about everything.

I am choosing to listen to the quiet voice. I choose to listen for the voice that wants to give me hope and cause me to do good and noble things.  I choose that, although it is harder to hear and follow, that is what I choose. Sometimes I get off the path and start listening to the louder voices, but my quest is to listen for the still small voice in the wilderness…the one that will lead me through to the clearing on the other side.

Who knows, maybe someone else that I cannot see is behind me – lost in the wilderness – and cannot hear the still small voice — but will follow my footsteps and make it through.