Recently I’ve been obsessed with Tracy Chapman’s song “Talkin’ Bout A Revolution.” I can’t imagine why at this current season in my country I’d be obsessed with such a song, but I digress. One of the lyrics in the song is “Don’t you know. They’re talking about a revolution? It sounds like a whisper.” If you’ve ever listened to the song you know that on the lyric “whisper” Tracy does this really cool effect with her voice that makes it sound like an actual whisper. If you haven’t listened to the song, stop reading this blog, and pull it up on whatever music streaming service you use. It’s a powerful song. As the song has been on repeat in my car it got me thinking about things in life and in the world around us that whisper.

As a nature lover I firmly believe the trees whisper as I’m making my way among them on a hike. They always whisper “Welcome Home”, but sometimes they whisper other messages such as “Where have you been?”, “You can do this”, and “Let Go and Follow the Damn Path.” Those of you who know me, it is of no surprise to you that the trees in my forest have a little sass in them. Recently I was hiking in my forest.. yes, I have my own forest. No, no one else realizes that it is in fact MY forest and so they feel entitled to also visit it. It’s an issue I’m working through..

I was in my forest musing on life and an upcoming class/session I was going to be leading when I came around a bend to see two deer at the top of the hill eating. I was in awe. They looked at me. I looked at them. It was the quentessitial love at first sight meeting. Deer are my spirit animals. I see them when I’m going through a rough time, when I need reassurance, when I’m wondering if I’m on the right path, etc. Seeing these 2 deer at a moment when I was struggling with a pretty hefty case of self doubt.. my hiking backpack wasn’t the only thing I was carrying through my forest that day… reinforced that I was on the right path and everything was going to be ok. Seeing those 2 deer was a whisper from the forest.

I think our bodies whisper and often we ignore those whispers, so our bodies have to scream. I know at the beginning of my journey I totally tuned out the whispers of my body and just kept pushing through and doing what I wanted/needed to do. After many, many times of ignoring my body’s whispers turning into my body full on screaming and throwing an epic toddler like tantrum, I have learned to listen to the whispers.

I don’t think you have to have chronic illness to have a body that is whispering to you. Maybe your body is whispering “Slow down”, Trust Your Gut, Let It Go, Forgive Yourself, Love Yourself, etc” I would venture that each of you reading this blog has experienced your body whispering. You have experienced that still, small voice inside you whispering and I would bet like me you probably have had many moments where you have chosen to ignore that still, small voice or stay busy enough that the noise of the world and your busy calendar drown her out. I will tell you in my experience it’s far easier and better to listen when she whispers than to have to deal with her when she screams. If you’ve ever experienced a toddler like tantrum and or witnessed one, you know whispering is far easier to deal with than tantrum level toddler screaming.

I think often we don’t listen to the whispers of life because we don’t trust them and/or ourselves. We think the world, the crowd in the stands, faceless strangers, etc know better than we do. We don’t listen because we don’t want to disappoint anyone, let anyone down, hurt anyone, etc. Or maybe we don’t listen because the whispers are telling us to do something that scares the absolute shit out of us. These are all valid reasons not to listen to the whispers of life and yet the whispers won’t go away. You can’t out run, out work, out last, and/or ignore them. They will get louder and louder until you are forced to listen to them. Yes, it’s highly annoying and unfair. It’s like the cars that beep if you don’t have your seatbelt on. I’m choosing to not wear a seatbelt, please let me do so in peace. You can choose to ignore the whispers, but they won’t let you do so in peace.. they will keep beeping until you listen.

I think in her song “Talkin’ Bout A Revolution” Tracy is encouraging all of us to really listen for the whispers in life.. whether that’s the whisper of trees, the whisper of our body, and/or the whispers of our soul. Maybe being able to hear these whispers in and of itself is revolutionary. So, listen for and to the whispers….