Finding Your Voice

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Over 10 years ago in a small shop in Sedona, Arizona, I had an opportunity to ask a psychic a question. So I asked, “What is my purpose in life?” You see, I was feeling lost, even though I had a family to take care of. She said, “Your purpose is to find your voice.”

My reaction was, “Huh???”

According to the Merriam-Webster dictionary there are two meanings to this phrase. One is “to become able to speak.” The other is “to be able to express oneself as a writer.”

At that time, I could understood the first meaning but not the second. My English wasn’t perfect as a person who came to the US as an adult. So I thought my purpose in life was literally to become able to speak because in addition to the limitation of my English I was a very shy person. That kind of made sense to me even though I could’t help but think that this life purpose was rather boring. 

After the session I asked my husband the meaning of the phrase. He told me the second meaning of being able to express oneself as a writer. But I was like, “Yeah right! I didn’t even understand the phrase. How can I be a writer in an English world? And what on earth can I write?”

Well, a lot has changed in the world and for me since then. The time we live in now is that equity and diversity are valued. We are encouraged to find our own voices and use them because we came to understand that each single life is unique and important.

For me, I started to experience the second meaning of finding my voice when I paid attention to pigeons. They don’t have a voice we humans can understand. Maybe not many people think they even have a voice. But when I paid attention to them, I sensed their joy, resilience and contentment. They inspired me and I wanted to tell their story. (See The Pigeons of Los Angeles)

So I think the psychic was right in both meanings, “Your purpose in life is finding your voice.”