Voice

As some of you know, I am an English teacher. And perhaps because I spend so much of my life – personal and professional – focused on language, on words, there are times when all I really want is peace. Stillness. Most particularly, to silence my own voice and listen to others. Or to nothing at all but the sounds of nature. Or a beautiful piece of music.

It may seem self-pitying, but the fact remains that I have known times in my life when I have come to loathe my own voice and the words it imparts. Or at the very least, to despise how meager their effect has been upon the world around me. For those of us who devote so much time and hope to expressing ourselves through language, it can be quite depressing to feel that no one is listening.

Recently I found something I thought I had lost – that other voice. The one that does not always accompany me. The one I write with. I know that some of you have become, let us say, reacquainted with your own voices. Or even newly acquainted. And I applaud you all for that, for finding the courage to express yourselves quite publicly. Which is tantamount to taking a great risk indeed for some. Particularly when we begin this journey with so little familiarity with the often anonymous members of this community.

I have been more fortunate than I can say to have discovered the finest, the most beautiful source of inspiration in my journey here. Within these very pages. And while I introduce this particular post with just these many words, I wish to show my gratitude to her, my beloved, and to you all with the following piece of wordless music from a group whose musical voice I adore. I hope you enjoy.