All Creatures Great and Small

How unique are we as humans? And how like all of creation are we as humans? 

I have been pondering the question or idea of "sound". I have been asking myself when in my life I was told that the sound I was making was not valued. Or that the sound I was making defined my value. I believe it was at a very young age. I think of babies and the way they communicate. They do not have words but they coo, they cry, they scream, they laugh, they gurgle, and a myriad of other sounds. I believe that the sounds that are loudest and most insistent are not valued by harried, tired, and overworked parents. There is often times a reaction that wants to quell that "noise". "STOP IT!!"  I remember as a child I was bitten badly by our dog and my mother was on the phone with the pediatrician (of course it was late at night....why do these things always seem to happen at night????!!) who I heard tell her in an insistent loud voice through the receiver (dating myself!), "Get that crying child away from the phone!!!" Wow. And that is just one example. Other adults and even my siblings, "You are too loud. Can you be quiet!!??" 

I have become more aware of the sounds that exist around me in my daily life. I have become intent on listening to the birds' songs, the sounds of leaf blowers and traffic, the sounds of the wind through the trees. "All creatures great and small...." I have also decided that as I have invested decades of practice and study in the voice and singing in particular that for myself, there is no such thing as a "bad" sound. How miraculous the voice is and versatile that it can be shaped into SO MANY different configurations to create an infinite variety of sounds and that each creature's unique make-up distinguishes those sounds even more!!! It boggles my mind and also relieves me from the effect of the lie I have believed for much of my singing life. The lie is this: I MAKE GOOD SOUNDS (desirable) AND BAD SOUNDS (undesirable) and I am a more valuable person if I make the GOOD SOUNDS. What a waste of my spiritual energy to entertain and believe this lie. Here is the truth: I MAKE SOUNDS! I CAN TRAIN MY VOICE TO MAKE A VARIETY OF SOUNDS. AND AS I DO THAT I CAN BEGIN TO CHOOSE THE SOUNDS THAT FINALLY FREELY EXPRESS WHO I AM.