I love asking questions. I love it even more when I find answers to my questions. I love the answers the most when I have been wrestling with the questions for a while, especially a questions like, “Why do I feel compelled to go to Tacoma to spend time with my friends? What waits for me there?”

[Aside: Obviously I want to see my friends. I love these people. I just felt more compelled and forced to go than just the usual, “Golly gee, I’m super excited to go.”]

I’m excited to say, I have a clue to the answer tied up in a story from these past days spent in Tacoma. Of the two friends I have in the area, one of them is, putting it mildly, quite a bit more forward and blunt. They are both pretty honest and real people in general, one of them will tell you how it is in a very direct sense. Suffice to say, he calls a spade a spade and makes no bones about it. He and I have been spending quite a bit of time together. I love spending time with this guy.

The flip side of this conversation, I am not an extremely forward person. I actually have a bit of fear and anxiety about sharing my opinion or bringing up conflict with people. For example, the other night I was talking with some friends and we were trying to decide what to eat. I suggested a place because we were all so indecisive. But I was afraid of rejection, offending someone, and anxious about it being a bad choice. I almost didn’t say anything.

Spending time with my friend is reminding me that I need to voice my opinion. I need to voice my commentary. In situations where the outcome has no bearing on anything, I need to voice my opinion if I have one (in these types of situations I usually don’t have even an inkling of an opinion and I’m not about to start making some up to be contrarian.) In situations where the group is going drastically off course, I need to voice my opinion. I need to have a voice. Having a voice is good. However, it is a high powered assault rifle and it is going to be a little messy moving forward and figuring out when and where it is actually good to open my voice.

How do you feel about having a voice? What are you doing to use your voice for the good of others and your community?

Cautiously,

–JT