They will never silence us

I’m fascinated with how people behave, learn, accomplish, fail, succeed – basically how we, as humans, are in the world. Even as a child, I loved noticing things: about people, the world and nature. It didn’t always make sense to me and there wasn’t really anyone I could chat to about it. So I did the next best thing and talked to myself.

As a young person, I was incredibly quiet. I was shy and introverted and stayed under the radar most of the time; which is a great way to be an observer. So my thoughts were often filled with questions such as:

Why did people lie? I saw them do it all the time.

How did it not hurt someone in their heart when they were mean to a dog?

How come some people had lots of money but lived in cold houses? Why would they not just spend some of the money on firewood?

Why was I too scared to tell my uncle he was wrong when I heard him being racist? (I was 10 when I saw my first black person on a visit to Dublin and my uncle made some derogatory comment that shocked and horrified me – I just couldn’t understand why he did it but felt too small to challenge him).

We were told there was only one way – that is NOT the truth.

Why were some rules so important when they seemed really stupid? Men had to take their hats off at mass but women needed to cover their heads with a mantilla!

Why was it not okay to ask these questions out loud? And believe me it wasn’t!

I still love to observe the world and talk to myself. And I’ve learned to ask questions out loud – because that’s how change and growth begin.

And what I see in the world is that people are amazing – the way some will overcome and triumph even in the face of adversity and how others struggle despite seemingly perfect circumstances. I also see how completely malleable the story of who we are really is and that the story of who we CAN be genuinely hasn’t been written yet! It’s ours to write – once we remember to keep the pen in our own hands.

“How we spend our days, is after all, how we spend our lives” Annie Dillard

So let me ask you a few questions today:

What questions are you a little scared of asking? Who’s holding the pen for your story? How can you live your life in a way that makes your heart sing?

“The tragedy of life is not that it ends so soon; but that we wait so long to begin it” Anon