Voices

Voices. Oh, the voices we ha

ve heard, currently are hearing, and will hear in the future…these voices, all too often, write the stories of our lives.

As children, we were impacted by the words our parents said, by the words they didn’t say, and by the words their actions spoke.

As children, we were influenced by the words of our peers, of our friends, of our teachers. Kindness, compliments, inclusion…insults, cruelty, exclusion.

As children, we formed identities based on the voices we heard, both inside our own heads and outside our personal universe.

Who were we told to be?

Who were we told we couldn’t be?

What voices screamed louder the rest?

By adulthood, our stories were crafted around the chapters of our early lives, filled with words that we didn’t even write ourselves.

And here we are, adults, with chronicles of narratives we don’t even know we can change.

When I think of my life, of the many pieces that make it up, the joys and pains, the successes and failures, the memories I want to keep and the ones I want to repress, I'm reminded of the voices that created those stories, some of which I spoke, some of which I allowed, and some of which I couldn’t get away from.

These voices we live with, the ones that say we are enough and the ones that say we aren’t, the screams that say we cannot and the cheers that say we must, the fears that hold us back and the faith that propels us forward, the identities we imaginatively live from and the one identity that we cannot run from, the misinterpretations from the past and the callings to change for the present and future.

All of us live with these voices, because all of us come from broken relationships. Our families, our friends, those who we have surrounded ourselves with have impacted us in some way. The sins of our lives and the sins of others have created wounds and driven wedges…it’s unavoidable on our path to sanctity.

Yet, our stories are not over. The books of our lives don’t include a conclusion. Thus, our entire life is a series of new chapters if we so choose to rewrite the possible ending.

What we have been, who we have been, and where we have been is forgivable. The words we have uttered, the choices we have made, the mistakes we have created can be a part of a prior chapter if we so choose to write anew.

Indeed, through God’s love, His mercy, and His forgiveness we may start a new chapter. But it requires we surrender it to Him to do so.