Voice By Alicia Anka May 19, 2014 Last month my book club read a book called “The First Phone Call from Heaven” by Mitch Albom. Basically the book is about a small town in American where a few of the residents begin getting calls from loved ones who have died and claim to be calling from Heaven. There were those in the town who had faith and believed that these were real phone calls and then there were skeptics who believed they were just a hoax. Of course everyone in the book club had someone they would love to hear from again, someone they still try to hear in their heads. When interviewed, Albom said that what inspired him to write this book was the fact that after his mother had a stroke and could no longer speak, what he missed most was her voice. He had taken for granted that he would always be able to hear her. This made me begin to think about the voices of people I love and how voice, or the lack of it, affects our lives. Take texting or emailing for example; how many times have you texted or emailed and the meaning of the words has been lost because the tone wasn’t clear? Because we are so busy with life these days, we often text or email instead of calling or getting together face-to-face, and I feel like we are getting less and less able to read each other correctly, to sense the emotion behind the words. Or, many people develop email or texting voices that do not coincide with their true voices so it’s like having two relationships with one person. One day I was having a chat with my son while we were playing in his room and he told me that he loved me so much. Then he asked me if I would like to know why? Sure, I said. He said that he liked that I did nice things for him, that he liked my face and he liked my voice. I thought that it was so interesting that a four year old could make that connection and since have heard him say on many occasion that he likes or dislikes people because of their faces and/or their voices – such a basic strategy for testing the waters with people. This week, as Monaco grows noisy and crowded, take some time to think about how your voice affects the people around you. Are you soft-spoken or loud? Would you like to speak differently than you do? What words do you choose to use? What’s behind those words? What does your voice say about you? Also, try to reach out to a friend or a family member and have a conversation. Observe the way he or she talks, how it makes you feel. Really contemplate what is unique about that person’s voice. And if you can do it face-to-face, even better. In a world of technology and automated voices, one can feel a bit isolated. Let’s try to celebrate the uniqueness of our own voice this week. Namaste
Posted on: Mon, 19 May 2014 13:56:30 +0000