If You Ignore My Whisper Hear My Scream

Don’t be afraid to raise your voice

A forest is a place where your senses are swamped with sounds, the crunching of the dirt, the rustling of the leaves, the sweet melody of the birds.

One bird, born to sing, is now quiet. Gone were the stress-free and happy days. After years of roaming, feeling the freedom in her wings, and chirping, she has now fallen silent.

“Tell me, how many times have you lost your voice to someone who isn’t even listening?” — Kat Savage

‘What was the point?’ she thought when your songs fall on deaf ears. The other birds were too busy preening their feathers and absorbed in their song. As if, in a forest, in the forest.

It didn’t matter if her melody wasn’t heard by the others. It was time to hear it for herself, to confirm that she had, and still has a voice, and it was loud and powerful. All this time she was singing, it was soft, enough to be a whisper, not to sound too rude or harsh to the others. Respecting them. But, respect goes both ways.

“When we speak we are afraid our words will not be heard or welcomed. But when we are silent, we are still afraid. So it is better to speak.” — Audre Lorde

One day, she decides to sing louder than ever before, to bellow out a tune worthy of remembering. To awaken the voice she muted for too long. She wanted to hear it, above the others, echoing as the trees carried it to the forest edge.

The other birds stopped and took notice, shocked, they didn’t know what to do. They had forgotten, maybe even ignored that she had it in her to be so bold and brazen. Inside, they acknowledge their fear of it but dare not admit it. Afraid of her views on freedom and choice, they wanted to stifle it. To be in control.

“What Good Are Wings If You Can’t Feel the Wind on Your Face? “— City of Angels (1998)

She decides to fly away to a place where her voice, once lost, now found can be heard and appreciated.

That’s when the other birds saw it for what it was — her loss would be dire. Everything she did and sacrificed was for their benefit. Absence will not make their hearts grow fonder, it will only take their control away. Looking at her empty nest they realize her value and acknowledge her worth. A little too late.

The truth is, they admit, though hard to swallow, it doesn’t take much to listen, to hear the voices of others over your own.

In the end, it wasn't for them to teach her, she had to find it for herself. Now wherever she goes, the forest is alive with her song.

“Our lives begin to end the day we become silent about the things that matter.” — Martin Luther King, Jr.