Your Voice

 Everyone who pursues their art must find their own voice.  The writer, painter, actor, monk.  At first, or early on, they will follow the voice of someone they admire, or read about, or meet.  This is imitation, but it will not satisfy since it is not their own voice but that of someone else’s.  So it is with me.  I read about someone or meet someone who is practicing the contemplative life of silence and solitude, aloneness, and I try and practice as they do or did.  But God wants me to be me, not someone else.  I will not arrive at my depth, the God-home, until I discover my truer self, without imitation.  I can have guides, methods, structure, but these are to help keep me on the path, or bring me back when I drift.  I am in this monastery, for now, seeking my voice in the silence.