what happens when we pause to listen to that small voice that gives gentle suggestions throughout the everyday? to honour the ideas, to take the action requested as one might run along and meet the requests of a beloved grandmother, not later but right away, in this moment. this moment generally is when the voices speak up. their requests are not often difficult, not challenging, not really. but how often do we dismiss that quiet suggestion? how many suggestions until the voices cease to help out in their tender, companionable way? and how much better does life flow when we begin to accept the suggestions?
often i notice that this voice is the voice of self-care, just now suggesting that a bit of shea butter on rough gardener’s hands would be just the thing. just now observing that it really is getting to be nap-time.
often the voice is timely, suggesting a solution that is really worth taking right now, so as to make the days that follow just that much better. this voice must’ve said that a stitch in time saves nine. probably their prompts are the sort that save us money, that nourish us, that tend to the body, the home, the relationship.
this is no fearful voice, full of warnings and anxieties, no. this voice is far quieter and will fall silent with neglect. only follow one or two of their tiny ideas and you open the flow. then the voice can be thoroughly collaborative, delighting in our suggestibility and our mutual attachment, our trust.
when i potter i am listening almost exclusively to this voice, listening as in accepting influence, taking action. i wonder sometimes if the source of this voice is my own intuition, my inner mentor playing with me, life itself playing through me. not as a puppet, not at all. not under orders. not coerced, guilt-tripped, threatened. rather, a playful collaboration, improvisatory. what if? shall we? look here! this may be just the thing.
then a flood of ideas holds forth. then i am guided by voices, often of the walls, the land, the plants, other animals. i am increasingly attuned. what do you need to thrive? let me help you with that. and there is the great collaboration before me, within me, vivid and bright. these are our adaptations, our inventions, grounded deeply in life’s own requests. this is how we can work in service to the world. it isn’t so hard when we begin to listen, and to act, on all the small works of the moments we are in.
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this small work flows to you in gratitude for drawing out the ideas and encouraging an intuitive, collaborative voice in me. your support is no small thing, it affirms what is possible and i am so grateful. thank you. watch this space for the radio versions of pieces like this that you might share with your people, and for the book version in time after that. if there are other places that you think these texts might fit nicely, send me a note.