On the Blog!

Tag: findingyourvoice

  • What is your song?

    What is your song?

    I live on a couple of acres- or a hectare, as the metric measurement goes.  Gum trees in the front yard are currently showering our deck with their blossoms and gifting us with increased bird life.  This week, I heard the flute like song of the butcher bird and the warble of the magpie. Both bird songs were beautiful and clear.  I stopped what I was doing to listen.

    It struck me that many birds sing just because they can.  They are not shy with their song, nor do they need an audience.  I wonder if they sing to praise their Creator; or do they sing to simply announce I am here!  

    I have heard it said that we each have a song and the world would be duller if we did not share that song.  Imagine the bush if only the butcher bird and the magpie were permitted to sing, and the other birds were silenced. There would be no more comic chatter from the lorikeets, no magical kookaburra laughter, nor the loud screech of the large white cockatoo overhead.  There would be no slurred warbling of the little finches, nor squeaky whistling of the willy wagtail.   As Henry Van Dyke said, “The woods would be very silent if no birds sang except those that sang best.”

    As you know, I have been writing a blog on and off for the past two and a half years. I started this journey as an outlet to practice my voice- or my song.  Of late, I have been silent. I have struggled to sing.  As time lapses, I wonder if I need bother at all.  Is anyone listening, anyway?

    Then I am reminded of the birds… It is enough that I am here-I am alive!  The very breath that allows me to speak-or sing at all, comes from the Creator himself.  That is reason enough to give praise- to use my voice at all. 

    Finch or butcher bird, cockatoo, or magpie; each has a song.  And so do you and I! Loud, soft, squeaky, melodious, comical or serious, every voice has a place, even if it is simply to announce I am here! 
    And for me, that is enough for today and this blog.

    Psalm 33:  I will sing to the Lord all my life; I will sing praise to my God as long as I live.

    Photo by Caroline Attwood on Unsplash

  • My friend Mary

    My friend Mary

    I met Mary in this village nearly seventeen years ago.  We were a little family of four on a faith adventure in Vanuatu and she was working for her provincial government in partnership with an NGO. We found in common our faith, our love for the people of Vanuatu and an interest in enterprising solutions for the nation.

    We kept in touch by sporadic emails. Mary’s internet service was ad hoc and dependent on her employment. Ours’ back home in Australia was brilliant in comparison.  We spent a week with Mary and her husband in their home on the neighbouring island several years later and Mary visited our home in Brisbane.  I met up with Mary again last year, when she was in Australia on a speaking tour with ActionAid.  It was as if nothing had changed, and yet it had. 

    Mary was now a widow.  I already knew that from her correspondence.  We were both much older and so were our children.  Mary was now a grandmother; me, not yet.   I was in full employment and Mary was hopeful. 

    Mary has communicated with me-and with others, that she faced many challenges as a widow in her culture. She chose to do something about this. She found her voice. 

    Tanna Island, a large southern island of Vanuatu, is Mary’s home. Tourists know Tanna for its live volcano called Mt Yasur. I am a rather proud -and in hindsight a somewhat crazy, tourist who climbed it and eyeballed it’s molten depth!  Mary’s home is on her husband’s family’s land but she is vulnerable to family pressures to relinquish it.  In spite of being amongst family, I recall Mary’s anger when as an early widow, she was propositioned by some of the married men she knew.   

    In recent years, Mary has sought to speak up for women and especially widows in her region. She has many ideas, but little funding or support. One of her desires is to train the women in the provinces to help them package, preserve and sell their produce. She also wants to empower these women in leadership. As a part of her journey, Mary ran for provincial government.  

    Mary’s political journey started nine years ago when she sought endorsement to contest the provincial elections. Her article for the Pacific Institute of Public Policy called The Long Journey-Political Acceptance of Women, outlines the challenges she met as a possible candidate. I found it especially sobering to read of what happened to women who considered voting for her.  

    I love the women and men of Vanuatu.  Our family counts amongst our closest friends ni-Van families that live in the Capital Port Vila, Erromango Island-where this photo was taken, and Tanna Island. Our first few visits to this tropical archipelago were as tourists. Our latter is simply to visit our friends. My husband, son and many male friends would add ‘and for the fishing’!

    Recently, I have been confronted to read formal documents of support for our Pacific neighbours highlighting the sexual abuse against girls in Vanuatu as one of the highest in the world. The inequity in women’s leadership in this Pacific nation has not gone unnoticed either. 

    I thank God for women like Mary who won’t be silenced and is speaking up for the women of Vanuatu.  My question and prayer is, what more can I do?