I have always believed that each human being has a unique voice, but I didn’t know how to find mine. Do you know how to find yours?

It felt kind of weird that my voice came out of my hands. Yes, I could hear it in my head and feel it in my heart, but the agents that delivered the voice where my fingers. I love the weirdnesses of life, don’t you?

Another weird point is that I think I found my voice before I realised I had found it. The actual realisation that I was sounding different came to me when I was writing my morning pages. I found myself scribbling down a lot of stuff about love. I don’t mean the ersatz, slop dished up by Hollywood; no, what I was searching for was some way to express a better way of being, a better way of appearing amongst my fellow beings.

It somehow felt like I had suddenly connected via the Greek goddess of communication Iris. She’s also known as one of the goddesses of the sea and the sky and for linking the gods to humanity. I like Iris because she travels with the speed of the wind from one end of the world to the other and even down into the depths of of the sea and the underworld.

Why Does It Matter?

Yes, I want to communicate with others, to spread the hard-won wisdom that I have accumulated, but that is not the real point, what I actually want is much more simple. I just want to make people feel good, to bring a little lightness into their lives, to create feelings of hope and connectedness. I really do believe that “united we stand, divided we fall”. When people feel disconnected, when they feel alone, it is somehow dispiriting. But when we feel that we are amongst friends, that we have the sense that we belong, it is a safer, more enjoyable place to live our lives.

If, as you read this, you are feeling that loneliness perhaps this is the time to be using your voice to join you up to the community of the human race. Maybe not to the whole of the human race, but at least to that section of the tribe who are within hailing distance.

Come on, don’t be shy, they need to hear from you just as much as you need to hear from them. You have a contribution to make, it may be important. Maybe everyone doesn’t need to hear from you, but somewhere there is someone who will greatly appreciate that you have taken the trouble to reach out and ask, “would you like to talk about it?”

What Matters?

What matters is that we have a voice, that we are listened to, that someone hears our troubles and our ideas. It is the little acts of caring that make communication between all primates so important. Troops of monkeys spend a lot of their time grooming one-another. Human beings also like to stroke each other and talking is a wonderful way to stroke another.

It is expressing ourselves that matters. We are stronger when we share our concerns, our ideas, our questions. As a group we are stronger, more able to face the challenges that make life such a wonderful experience. It is when we are alone, when we shrink from the challenges, when we search for answers in the one-dimensional space of our single mind that we are less strong, less able to enjoy the adventure, less able to rise to the challenges.

Why So Deaf For So Long?

On the day I was born 250 enemy bombers flew over our house on their way to drop 200 tons of bombs and incendiaries on the port of Southampton. That same night bombing raids on nearby London killed more than a thousand people. I was born only 15 miles from the epicentre of that cacophony. I must have heard it, I may possibly have felt the ground shake even as I emerged from my mother’s womb. Did that experience make me deaf to the sound of voices? Or was I just so overcome with a fear of the world that I dare not speak? Yet for some reason, I have always believed in the power of oratory, that the pen is mightier than the sword, that I have something important to say. Was my sound then too puny? Was my message meaningless? Was my voice not speaking in the right language?

The points on which I am clear are that everyone needs to be heard, that it is not necessary to shout to penetrate other people’s consciousness and that I was born not just to speak but also to listen.

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