by Michael. B

Created on: July 15, 2008   Last Updated: July 18, 2008

One of the greatest gifts we have, less celebrated perhaps than sight or sound, is the gift of speech; every voice with a unique tone, pitch and rhythm.

Just as we all share common patterns of speech, due in the main to our social status and genetic heritage. Each of us has an inner voice that we tend to keep at bay. This voice represents the core of who we are, sometimes only emerging when somebody pulls out in front of us on the motorway or skips the queue at the supermarket. What we think we say under the circumstances or what we'd like to think we'd say, is not always the same as what our inner voice utters.

Some call it consciousness, other's the voice of reason or the voice within, but whatever your regard for it, it is endemically you and a personal aspect of your life that you must first accept, love and only then learn to cultivate.

In my lifetime I've met wonderful people with amazing stories to tell told I might add, with the greatest of energy and conviction, in only the way they know how to tell them. I've often asked these people if they've written or documented these experiences in any way, and the response, bar sitting at a stool with the village historian, is always the same;

"I wouldn't know what to write." Is what they say.

This reply, although very serious, always humours me a little and I think to myself, what if they only had a Dictaphone and a typist, they could very well be the next best seller.

The point is, we all have something to say and despite the obvious benefits of keeping a journal, to record our version of events and to pass on history or wisdom, there is also great therapy and release in allowing that inner voice to speak.

The very first step in this process is understanding that you're not writing for anyone other than your internal spark. Therefore, you never have to share your words unless you want to and even if you say to this:

"Well then, what's the point?"

The point firstly is that your accepting who you are and allowing that somebody to speak through your pages. I might also add here that in all the time I've spent with a pen in my hand, I've never come across a more sympathetic and caring bunch of individuals than our fellow writer's among us who also and often feel the very same fear of exposure and yearning to create and be heard.

It begins with the inevitable blank page, your page. What you create and make of that page is your own, unless you will it to be otherwise. In it you might create thoughts, memories, feelings, happy and sad, or you might realize that you've just written a poem or short story. The point is, you've provided a venue for your creative side to speak, and while recording what that voice has to say, you've released something inside of you that is worthy of words, even if they remain private and confidential, that can only be of the deepest benefit to your well being.

With that said, I'll leave you with two quotes: agreeing that there's no such thing as a mistake when writing, only words and a longing to share.

"Truly it is in the darkness that one finds the light, so when we are in sorrow, then this light is nearest of all to us."
Meister Eckhart.

"The unconscious wants' truth. It ceases to speak to those who want something else more than truth."
Adrienne Rich.

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