Another 3 a.m. thought…Sigh, my middle-of-the-night voice.
We have a German Shepherd. Actually, we have four. Each is as different from the other as night is from the day, and noon is from midnight.
The one I’m talking about was born in the summer of 2021. Call her “Byrd.” Early yesterday morning, actually, in the middle of the night, I was sitting at the dining table listening to the dogs shuffle around outside. We later learned the coyotes had been busy, and our next-door neighbor had a bobcat on his property. Our dogs are good guard animals but not at all silent. Byrd’s brother is “Bear.” He was slow to bark as a pup, and then he found his wolf howl. Those mournful sounds are beautiful to hear.
Oh, but Byrd. She’s learned to bark, not as often as the others. But her most common sound is like a “whine.” It’s not as pleasant to hear, but at least she doesn’t bark that much.
Back to yesterday. It was about 4 a.m., and Bear began to howl about 10 or 12 feet away. On the other side of a darkened door, he lifts his snout to the air, and truly, you know our dogs are descendants from the wild.
Byrd is sitting next to him. Her whine is all I hear. And suddenly, she turns that whine into a howl. Strikingly different from the other, these two pitches of howl are presented to the night sky! She found her voice!
It made me think about our voice, when we decide to speak, where the words come from, and how long we think about using them before they find the light of day.
Our Inside Voice Joins the Outloud Chorus
There are times we speak without thinking it through.
Our words find the light of day.
Exhaled into a public space.
They occupy a place.
They are your words.
You own those words,
In your own words,
Carried forth by your breath.
From your thinking space,
To an outside place.
Now, you must support them.
Augment their presence.
Flesh them out into an understanding space.
Words may stand alone,
But they take a while to be whole.
Out loud, my thoughts sound different than I expected.
I’ve learned to think things through,
And my advice? I hope it’s sound,
Speak the words you’ve been thinking and writing.
To yourself. Out Loud! You are your first sounding board.
Try those thoughts to yourself,
Before you test them on others.
Long before you deliver them vocally,
Help them ring true by sharing locally.
Now, try this exercise.
Check your spoken words against your thoughts.
Sometimes, you speak out of turn,
Or your voice surprises your mind.
Sometimes, you restate yourself. For clarity.
Maybe if we learned how to say it better,
Then, taking ownership of words is much easier.
Thank you for reading.
Please share with others.
It helps me get my book written!