It’s not our fault that we’re ashamed of our voice

It is not our fault that we are ashamed of our voice. That we think it’s too loud, soft, too squeaky, too husky, too mumbled, too fast, too slow. People literally told us those things were true when we were children.

It’s not our fault that we’re afraid to speak because at the core of all of us is a child who was shushed, celebrated for our silence and/or was literally not able to speak.

It’s not our fault we’re triggered by our sisters when they speak up and we don’t. The sister wound around using voice stems from survival! We’ve needed to silence each other to be heard.

It’s not our fault we don’t believe we’re musical or think we can’t sing in tune. The colonial systems of music told us that most of us can’t and only the perfect few can. This was a way of ending communal singing and traditional music making.

It’s not our fault we have trouble using our voice to express love, grief, sorrow, rage. The unwritten societal rule book clearly states there is a time and place for all that, and it’s always to be done in private.

Our relationship with our voice is wounded, and none of it is our fault.

Just wanted you to know xxx