Hello ♡,
Where I live, the street after the rain steams off the water in the heat. It rises in patches, relieved of it’s duty, returning to the sky. I was walking my dogs one evening as the street steamed, and I got just past our neighbor’s house when I heard it. I recognized the sound so clearly, but couldn’t believe that was what I was hearing so far away.
I heard my daughter’s voice singing. The exact tone, exact style, but so distant I thought I must be imagining it. So I circled back towards my house. I wanted to know - had her voice reached this far? I wanted to be sure what I heard.
As I got closer to my house the sound got clearer, the doubt smaller. It was definitely her. The sound of her passionate singing breaking through the boundaries of the house as she belted in the bathroom. It was a lovely sound, one I love. And I almost missed it on the road. I stood there in the steamy after rain, dogs compliantly looking around, listening to the sound of her beautiful voice as the street dimmed and the lights started to glow from inside the house.
It got me thinking about the call we all feel internally. Sometimes so distant we doubt it is what we are hearing. Are we imagining the sound? But it feels so familiar, even if it is new, almost like a song, or a voice, we have heard before. And so if we are curious we circle back towards home, closer in to ourselves and stillness, to listen for what it is we are indeed hearing. And then the sound, that we thought may be just ambient noise, grows clearer until it is unmistakable.
The call you hear may be many things. A call:
to create
to return home to yourself
to stop abandoning your own needs
to contact that person
to mend that fence
to hear God
to try again
to rest
It may be one thing, or it may be many things. And it may be a sound that feels familiar because it somehow belongs to you, or with you, or lives in you. I’ve come to trust the power and importance of listening.
And though it can be tempting to keep going down the road, we’ve got places to go…I have rarely, if ever, regretted a circle back. Tune in to listen to the sound - oh yes, that is what I heard. The sound becomes unmistakable. Sure, you will doubt it again when you get further away. But just for that moment, you stand in the street of your life listening. And doesn’t that sound, and your heart, deserve that? I think so.
With you,
Monica
Book News!
It is really something to watch the book take on a life of its own. I wrote this book yes because I heard the distant sound to create it, and listened in. But also and completely, in the hopes it would help someone feel seen. Getting messages about that very experience from readers has been one of the greatest gifts. And so many listeners love the audio book! They say it is soothing. I remember sitting in that little booth feeling that calm myself as I read. I never knew hearing from individual readers would be the greatest joy of this process.
Reviews- If this book is meaningful to you, would you write a review on Amazon and GoodReads to help support this work? It takes just minutes, and you can use the same review for both spots! GoodReads Amazon
Circling back to hear the sounds of my own self as they try to emerge from the buzz rant ringing all around them and inside me. Yes.