Podcast: Play in new window | Download

Subscribe: Apple Podcasts | RSS

15 minute writing timer. Ready. Set. Go.

Several years ago, I was in the middle of a social media sabbatical and one of my trusted teachers and friends said, “Dave, the world needs to hear your voice. I know you’re taking some time off. But, be willing when you are ready.”

In many ways, I had grown tired of the story and stories I was telling. I was detoxing a bit, I think. And I was battling the inner demons that sharing our voice seems to awaken. At the time, those inner demons held quite a grip on my life and I found myself in a predictable cycle of fear with them. It went something like this: come out of turtle shell, share story, hear feedback and feel good, not hear feedback and feel bad, hear too much feedback and feel overwhelmed by pressure to respond to others’ responses, feel pressure to keep telling stories, feel misunderstood, feel fear beginning to tip the balance, put head back in shell, take a break, peak out of turtle shell…and so on.

Committing to writing and sharing every day for this month-long writing project is my way of putting myself in a place to face any fears that are left over and to turn the lights on them because I don’t want to live with fears I don’t need. 

What have I found? I have grown exponentially and very few of those fears carry any weight at all anymore. They’re not gone, but they are light in spirit and distant clouds passing quickly by. 

“Be willing when you are ready.” Those were John’s final words on the subject of sharing my voice and it is no surprise that they came to the forefront of my consciousness as I was engaging in last month’s 31-day ice bath challenge, the focus of which was engaging my will every day to do something that I resisted, feared, etc.

I am ready. I am willing. 

And I am willing myself to continue sharing my voice.

I remind myself that my story is our story. Our story is our story. 

We don’t really have any new stories to tell, but we need to keep telling the stories because we need to keep hearing the stories because they are our stories.

So, I’m not getting caught up in saying anything new. 

I am one voice. 

I am special, but not that special, as John so wonderfully and lovingly reminded me.

Distinct, but not separate. A wave in the ocean. Rising from. Returning to.

I wrote extensively during the 8 years of recovering from my brain injury and particularly during the worst of those days.

One of the reasons I wrote was because I knew that the story I was in was bigger than me and that I would never feel the acuteness of those times in the same way. 

Reflecting back is different than processing in and through.

I haven’t read those journals since I wrote them. But I know they are raw and real and that they hold moments and anecdotes and breakthroughs and breakdowns that others need to hear who are on a similar journey or are walking alongside someone in such a place.

Soon, I will begin the project of bringing that journey to life and sharing a story that is universal in its message but also distinctly mine.

“There is a space in the heart where everything meets. 
Come here if you want to find me. 
Mind, senses, soul, eternity — all are here. 
Are you here?” Radiance Sutras. Roche, Lorin. 2014. (p.61).

I am here. We are here.

I am ready. I am willing. 

Time.