Voices

February 16, 2025

Lately I’ve been listening to voices of love and courage to keep my spirit anchored in this storm. I fondly remember my parents whose voices of love laid a secure foundation for me from birth. When we experience comfort and safety from an early age, we learn to trust others and ourselves. These voices of our parents and family become the voices in our heads as we get older. Sometimes we have to quiet these in order to hear our own inner voice of love and wisdom.

I think we gravitate toward the voices that reflect what we hold to be true about ourselves and our world. If we have learned to ask questions, think for ourselves, and listen to different points of view, we will have a broader perspective and a more open mind. We’ll be less likely to believe false, fear-based messages about others or to see the world as black and white. The voices we listen to help shape our worldview, so it is important to choose wisely.

Right now the powers that be are threatening to silence voices of dissent and diversity, just as they claim to fly the banner of free speech. As it turns out, this version of free speech is limited to their voices and viewpoints, while others are deemed a threat. This is a dire warning sign of a shift toward authoritarianism. It  also reveals a desperate drive for power and control.

When outer voices are clamoring for our attention, the need to go inward becomes greater. In silence we can hear the voice of Love and Wisdom. This is how I regain my footing when the earth is shaking. I connect to the abiding Presence at the center of my being where nothing from the outside can enter. It is my sanctuary. All my concerns fall away and I am at peace.

In this sanctuary I ask, “How can I use my voice to bring Love and Light into the world? How can I be the change I wish to see?” This is how I discern what is mine to be, say, and do. Perhaps I need to be more aware of the quality of my words and the stories I share to ensure that they reflect love. I can use my voice by speaking with kindness and generosity to the people in my world. This is like watering the flowers we wish to see bloom.

There is a common saying in popular South American songs: ‘You can cut all the flowers, but you cannot keep spring from coming.’ Every day people in government try to cut down all the flowers, but spring always comes. So we get people water. There are many kinds. Looking people in the eye is water (Anne Lamott, Somehow).

Anne Lamott is one whose voice has helped me make sense of things when so much feels lost and broken. Other voices of reason and truth I’ve found include Heather Cox Richardson, Brene Brown, and Mel Robbins, to name a few. They give me perspective and clear a path in my boggled, cluttered brain. As we align ourselves with truth, beauty, and love, we find and attract others whose voices uplift and empower us. Together we rise above the mire and give energy to the voice of Love which cannot be silenced. It speaks through our actions as well as our words. Love is the one thing that lasts, that transcends and transforms our lives.

Hope springs from realizing we are loved, can love, and are love with skin on. Then we are unstoppable. This hope is from a deep, deep place that somehow my parents seeded. Love is not a concept. It’s alive and true, a generative and nutritious flickering force that is marbled through life. I can hold it in my hands whenever I remember to, stroke its ivory belly, hear its crunch, its rustle(Anne Lamott, Dusk Night Dawn).

Take heart, my friends. Refuse to be discouraged. Love is calling us to higher ground, and it needs our voices, our hands, our hearts, our all.

Rise & Shine,

ej

Elisa J. Juarez