What voice do you hear?

One of the best things about my job is the amazing people I get to work with!  On Thursday I was working with an 11 year old girl who I will call Lucy.  She is brilliant, charming, sensitive, creative and has an eagerness to learn about herself. 

Her parents are going through a divorce, a difficult one.  She is like most children who find themselves in this situation thinking, "there is something I can do to make it better."  However, through the process of trying to make things better,  and be everything to everyone, negotiator, peacemaker, and little miss sunshine... the child actually stops listening to that internal voice and begins to revolve around the adults in their life.

As we were discussing this concept of listening to yourself and letting the adults figure it out, 

she said, "I guess sometimes you are deaf to yourself, but can still hear everyone else?"  

Yes, that is exactly what happens...  Whatever trauma we maybe experiencing, sometimes we so desperately want it to go away and to experience peace we begin to sacrifice anything, and sometimes that sacrifice is our own voice.   We do become deaf to that still, small voice that tells us which direction to go, the voice that protects, feels, and hopes.  The more we listen to the loud voices around us, the more confusing life becomes and thus the journey becomes weary and tiresome.  

There is irony in Lucy's metaphor.  When we think of someone who is deaf, they CAN hear their own self, but CANNOT hear those voices around them.   

So, for Lucy, Thursday was the beginning of freedom in her journey.  Freedom to begin hearing herself again.  To listen to her own heartbeat, to hear her own voice.  I believe as she listens she will find a peace within the storm...