TrueVoice Tuesday, a weekly email designed to give you a short burst of inspiration in a world that feels chaotic and confusing.
Each week the format is: A Truth | A Tip | A Take | A Tale.
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A Truth (one thought about sharing your TrueVoice):
Your TrueVoice doesn’t reside in your head. It takes up space in your heart.
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A Tip (one thing I’ve picked up from others this week):
“Frequently, as so many poets and psalmists and songwriters have said, the invisible shift happens through the broken places.” – Anne Lamott – it’s been over a week since I finished this book, but it’s still hanging with me.
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A Take (a strong opinion or nitpick):
The shallows are crowded with people jockeying for small splashes of water. A different, and better game, is available in the deeps. And there’s plenty of room to spread out and swim.
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A Tale (a book update):
Two weeks in a row where I wrote 500 words four of the last seven days. Maybe that’s the more practical number. Five just hasn’t happened with the rest of the load in my life the past two weeks.
2,099 words were added to the plot.
14,252 words in total.
Two sessions took place on our back deck.
One by our outdoor fireplace.
And one in the backyard cabin. Again, my favorite place in the world right this moment.
This week, all of the words have been about writing actually.
A topic I knew would come up in the TrueVoice book, but I wasn’t sure when and where.
The most interesting, unedited words that emerged this week for me:
(Again, I’ve clicked every formatting button above to change the copy below from bold to normal font, but I’ve given up for good. I guess it’ll just be bold moving forward.)
Words create worlds.
And within them, they have the ability to create this mysterious connectivity, in this fluid movement between one person’s brain, through their heart, and out of their fingertips and another person’s soul.
You know exactly what car you were in, who was with you, and what lyrics were written when you played the first mix tape with Kris Kross or Tupac. Or popped in the first CD, Blind Melon’s album you bought for $9.99 at Best Buy. Or the first time you loaded an mp3 onto an iPod, and Nelly came blasting out of this micro computer.
Or you know how it felt when you sat alone late at night, with a glass of whiskey in one hand, anxiety in the other, and a book that offered a sentence of sounds and syllables that saturated into your heart’s soil.
Or the tears that still well up when you read the Mother’s Day card you got from your 4th grader that had misspellings and bad drawings, but the words mean more than you can express.
Or the text you go back to, the one you’ve screenshotted in your favorites, from a friend who had the right words, at the hardest time.
Or the email you read and read again, making sure it’s as heavy and devastating and final as it says.
We got lied to as kids, just absolutely lied to.
Sticks and stones may break my bones, but words will never hurt me.
But what about all the words that have hurt and hurt and hurt us?
The lies, the betrayal, the attack, the manipulation, the shame, the criticism?
We’re the walking wounded, carrying decades of scars and stories from words that squeezed us into little glass bottles.
Shut off to our emotions, afraid of our depths, ashamed of our stories.
Words can most definitely hurt me.
And have.
And if you’re still alive while reading this book, they have hurt you too.
And you, just like me, have used words to hurt others as well.
Sticks and stones may break my bones, and my words will definitely harm you at some point. As will yours to me.
As our TrueVoice swells and soars, we become progressively more aware of when our words are laced with ego, mixed motives, and harmful intentions.
In that awareness, we get to choose to move deeper into hiding, or out into the light and love of our TrueVoice.
Words have the power to heal.
Words have the power to unite.
Words have the power to create.
Words have the power to connect.
Words have the power to love.
And it’s in the writing of those words when you have the opportunity to get out of your head, and tap into a different source of power in your life, your heart.
