Share your voice, even if it’s just in words

Welcome. Well, come and comment and read. You are just in time, and just in case you have the time, I have brought the words.

I remember reading in the introduction of a Spanish dictionary a phrase that roughly translated to “our language is only limited by the extent of our memory and the rest the dictionary may supply”; however, what came to my mind when I read this was — your mind is only limited by your words. We can expand the limits of our minds by increasing our vocabularies and I believe by increasing the quality of the words, the ideas, the stories that we listen to and read.

I believe that by etching the ideas and thoughts that float through our minds and constraining them to the written word can make those ideas more real. This process cements what we have written and allows us to more fully understand the width, the depth, and breadth of the ideas and concepts. Writing can be a form of meditation almost, it can empty our minds so that our thoughts can be more fully examined in the light of day. This is one reason why I have chosen to write. I write for myself, because doing so is part therapy. I write because I have a voice and I believe that perhaps in sharing my words not only will I benefit, but perhaps some others may find value. But what do I write about? What could I possibly share that others would enjoy taking the time toread? We live in an attention-deficit world — what new video, podcast, show, article is the hot thing? There one minute, gone the next. Everyone trying to go viral, clamoring: NOTICE ME! NOTICE ME! As though one’s value or importance could be measured by the number of followers he had, the number of likes, comments, retweets or shares a post generated. What can I bring to that? Me. My voice. My words. Because no one else’s words have been filtered through my brain, tweaked and influenced by my experiences, softened by the empathies of my struggles. And by extension, what can you bring? You. Your voice. But perhaps where your voice lives isn’t words on a page, perhaps your voice is conveyed in the notes of a song, or through the love of a mom. No one else’s voice is your voice. Like Jonathan Fields’ Good Life Project Creed (http://www.goodlifeproject.com/creed/) reads “Don’t try to be different, own the fact that you already are.” So speak up! Share it. If Adele could only sing in a forest with no one else around to hear, she’d still sing, even if it was only to get the music out of her. At least she herself would hear it. I like how Henry Van Dyke put it, “Use the talents you possess, for the woods would be very silent if no birds sang except the best.” Remember the adage, don’t die with your music still within you.

And so I write. So welcome to my “must,” to my words, to my voice. Perhaps I am the only one who heard it. But, just in case I’m not, then you were just in time, so please pass on my words. My name is Justin and this is Just In Words.