Callings from Little Voices
Jeff
Brown's book Soulshaping:
A Journey of Self-Creation is about how we can listen
to and follow our soul's guidance in the midst of life. While
the book goes to great lengths to teach us how we can achieve
this in our lives, many readers will be reminded of those
little voices or those strings around the finger that told
them there was something they were supposed to do other than
the job they held each day.
Have you not seen people doing other jobs that caused you
to pause and consider how wonderful it would be to do that?
Brown suggests that there may be just one calling, but it
seems to me we have many callings in our lifetime. The problem
is the risk (and Brown admits there is great risk in achieving
our soul's path) that comes with abandoning one path for another.
In the world as we know it there is great pressure to maintain
a job and provide for a family and community. Yet the little
voices keep coming, and many—if not most—are too
frightened or skeptical to follow through on the messages
that the voices convey.
So how did my job fulfill my yearnings? I loved teaching...
but then there were those days. One day I would say, "You
mean they are going to pay me to read books and discuss them,
then write about books and other subjects and read those things
to one another? What a deal." And then there would be those
other days when things outside of these objectives would make
me think, "There has to be a better way to make a living than
this."
I guess there are few English majors who have not dreamed
of writing for a living. We read about a writer hidden away
in a cabin dealing with nature and his writing on a daily
basis and we think this must be a wonderful life. Or we imagine
going to opening night of a new play (a play that would make
Tennessee Williams look like a novice) that we have just written,
which is bound to have a long run on Broadway.
So how do we handle both our jobs and our yearnings for other
things. I guess many (myself included) bide their time and
take advantage of any opportunities that come along. When
I retired, I was able to get a job with a local newspaper,
The Floyd County Times. Now admittedly, this paper
is not like the New York Times or the Boston Globe,
but it had readership and that is all it takes for a writer
to do his best. At a paper such as this one, writers are asked
to do all kinds of things; but the niche that I found satisfying
to me was writing columns. One of my instructors at one of
the National Writing Project sites (Eastern
Kentucky University at Richmond, Ky) told the participants
to write about what they knew. I wrote about the small neighborhood
where I grew up and still live. When I picked up the paper
each week, I knew I was a writer. I had proof. There I was,
photo and all, telling some silly story or experience. And
people called and told me they enjoyed reading my work.
Who hasn't dreamed of being a famous photographer? Now I
am not one and never will be, but I did gain enough skills
to do weddings and sporting events and things of that nature.
I made little or no money but that was not the point—the
point was to get the work published; and yes when the prints
went home and were put in albums and on the walls they were
published.
Since I have a masters degree in English, I often think about
how nice it would be to teach at a junior college. So far
I haven't done anything to that end, but from time to time
the little voice brings it up.
And what about those little instances of serendipity that
we experience from time to time. Line dancing would have been
way down on my list of things to do, but for some reason one
day I was coaxed into doing it (rather poorly, yet still doing
it) and for three years I have been part of a group that dances,
sings, tells jokes and loves people at senior citizens' centers,
nursing homes, veterans' homes and local events.
What little voices do you hear? You might want to read Brown's
book. It may give you some additional insights into answering
the call of the little voices. |