Our lives are speaking to us all the time.

They are telling about what we can do really well, how we flourish, and even what it is we want to do with our lives to make a difference for someone, somewhere. I call these whispers. Almost too quiet to notice. And we don’t have enough time to stop and listen.

Thin silence is arguably a better translation of the term gentle whisper found in the Judaeo-Christian scriptures. The prophet Elijah can’t hear his God in the earthquake, wind, and fire, but then there follows a thin silence announcing his helper.

Thin silences come from both within and without: from the expanding universe our lives are, and from people we know, something we’re focused on, or an event.

Some years ago, I was in a small mentoring event. Though strangers at first, we had grown to value each other over our days together. As we were about to end the time, I had a thought to ask each person to write something to encourage me. One by one they wrote a whisper in a notebook I still have. This was for me when the idea of our lives whispering became clear to me. It helped me to see how I was trying to be a dreamwhisperer to people I met.

I listen for the whispers coming from a person’s life. Perhaps those I’m listening to don’t even hear the significance of something they are saying or feeling. I try to “amplify” it, pointing out what may be important for them to see and touch and feel.

We can all be dreamwhisperers.

SOMETHING TO DO: We’ll need to find some quietness and slowness so we can notice the energy and ideas and dreams and hopes that form our whispers. A good way of capturing these thoughts is to journal, which I’ve mentioned a few times already. Julia Cameron wrote a bestselling book The Artist’s Way that has encouraged many people to develop their art and artisanship. One of the exercises she encourages is the writing of “morning pages.” Three pages of journalling before the day gets into its busyness.

Cameron suggests just starting and getting everything and anything down. My own journalling has more shape to it. I begin with some important prompts and am surrounded by books full of ideas to reflect on, also my journal extract from the year before. However we journal, the important thing is to find a way that we look forward to and has a sense of movement for every day.

I wouldn’t suggest beginning with three pages. One’s enough, but don’t edit what you are writing, simply let it flow. Begin, perhaps, with the dreams and hopes you have had for your life as you have coloured in the doodles.

RESOURCES YOU MAY ENJOY:

Let Your Life Speak by Parker Palmer
The BFG by Roald Dahl
The Artist’s Way by Julia Cameron