We can all listen to ourselves among other voices, but what are we hearing? When is silence a voice for an intimate conversation or the wind a secret that we have been longing to hear? People allow the noises of the world to play behind them, yet so often we disguise our own voices in the sound bytes of our surroundings. Words need the crisp clarity of articulation; the fresh air of an open mind. A truth or an honest idea can be said and retracted, can be sampled before spread out as a preserved self-decree or a justified jam. Coining a phrase is as easy as speaking an observation and giving it shine. Granting your words push and volume allows them a strength and saucer to sit on. Hearing the world’s echo back will send resonance of peace to your thoughtful mind.

Stand with your thoughts. Or at least invite them to join you. Take the tiny moments that the world rations out to us so methodically, and use them to digest the waterfalls of new knowledge that spiral around us everyday. Provide yourself the chance to sip on words, pictures, sounds, sculptures: as though they are a perfectly steeped cup of tea. Brewed leaves of a new life that you drink in at a pace that you can pour peacefully. It can provide such splendid aromas, warmth, and flavor to your body and mind. Instead the world piles gallon buckets flowing from one to another all around us and demands us to lap up everything without a breath. Gallons of distractions and fountains of filth that do nothing to bring us to our center. Accept just one cup at a time. No need to drown in your thoughts.

Strike the mountain pose or cross your limbs in a compact collection of your mind’s meanderings. The path to rejuvenation can be as long, narrow, and winding as your imagination can draw. Give it a line here and a patch of wildflowers over there and watch the steady hand of your mind draw for you exactly where you would like to mosey. But, mosey into a trot and you have to flip your pencil over and erase a smudge in habit: breathe. Give your soul the moments it needs in silence. The sound it needs to sing. The laughter it needs to bloom. Remember a dish of life’s sweetness: one lump or two? Savor the journey; life is the timeline, you are the one taking sips, so pinky up!

Guest Contributor: Kody Maynard

Kody is the Program Coordinator for the Gay, Lesbian, Bisexual, Transgender and Allies Resource Office at the University of Northern Colorado

You can contact Kody at his office: 970-351-2906 or www.unco.edu/glbta

The Authenticity Project