I am so grateful that much of my life is spent here in the valley. It’s a beautiful place of peace and space. However, living and working here has changed my perspective on what is important. It offers grace to strip away what really doesn’t matter. And perhaps also tunes my ear to catch a whisper I wouldn’t otherwise hear.
In continuing to ponder how we find our true voice, I’ve realised that this has as much to do with what we hear as what we create. In searching, I’ve turned my attention to listening.
Clearing
Recently Brian Draper shared a profound poem – Clearing – by Martha Postlewaite:
Do not try to save
the whole world
or do anything grandiose.
Instead, create
a clearing
in the dense forest
of your life
and wait there
patiently,
until the song
that is your life
falls into your own cupped hands
and you recognise and greet it.
Only then will you know
how to give yourself
to this world
so worth of rescue.
Waiting patiently, having cleared away the rubbish. To hear the song that is my life. And in welcoming it, recognising what it asks of me…
Gentle whisper
This echoes another thread I’ve been exploring. That what I am listening for is more than just my own voice. But it’s not heard in the loud and often angry voices telling me what I should or shouldn’t do. Nor is it in the wind and storm, or the earthquake or fire. It’s a still small voice, a whisper, and if I’m not listening I’ll miss it…
I heard this most gentle whisper
from One I never guessed would speak to me…
Psalm 81v5, The Message
