sing your own song

Thanksgiving Week

Sing your Own Song

My eyes filled with tears this morning as I unwrapped the new CD and loaded it in my car. I was startled by what I heard- a woman’s beautiful and unique voice singing her own lyrical and deeply moving songs.

Last week when I was out of town making a presentation, a woman came up to me and handed me this CD. She said “I saw you ten years ago.” Of course I remembered her instantly. I remembered we worked together for a while on her struggle to reclaim her life and art and then she moved away.

I didn’t remember the details of this woman’s life but I do know the struggle that is so common in the lives of women with ADD- the disorganization, the overwhelm, the struggle to activate one’s brain, getting lost in the mounds of paper work and laundry. I remember all the years of listening to talented women like this –listening to the ache inside to get back to what they love to do, to remember what they are great at, to get back to being themselves and to making visible and making manifest their talents and abilities- letting the world see them and hear their voices instead of spending their lives in the land of deficits, shame, guilt, full of longing and lost dreams.

A woman came up to me last week and handed me this amazing piece of her self. A small woman, a quiet woman, a  humble woman it seemed to me. No one would have any idea what a strong and powerful voice she had inside, how much she had to say and what kind of talent she possessed to express it.  

I loaded her voice into my CD player  this morning, alone in my car, windows up to protect me from the morning chill, when suddenly  warmth spread throughout, deep into my core as I listened to all that promise fulfilled. To be able to hear, ten years later to a woman fulfilled, using her abilities, to hear the strength of her talent and voice, crystallized in an instant for me in a powerful way, all the other voices  that have something to say or to give or to teach or to share or to contribute in a million different ways. They are voices that might never be heard because someone is too overwhelmed or too  lost in all the details and the judgements to see themselves clearly enough to  let themselves live their life and fulfill their promise.


On this Thanksgiving week, please let this be a lesson to you to begin to sing your own song. Whatever song you have inside of you begin to sing it, whatever music you have inside you, whatever form that takes for you- begin to play it- softly maybe at first and then louder and more often . Whether your “music” is your humor, your warmth, your point of view, your compassion, your abilities with numbers or with people or ideas, let your self picture this gifted woman ten years ago, maybe sitting in a room full of unfolded laundry, overwhelmed by kids and chores, lost under all her deficits but somehow persisting, eventually giving herself permission to move toward her strengths and unleash her talent.

This is a story of Thanksgiving.. about drive and perseverance in the face of great challenge, about staying in the game no matter what….seeking out people who can see you until you see yourself, - so that your challenges -whatever they are, ADD or anything else, become something to deal with, to pick up and carry with you while you move toward giving your unique song as a gift to a world thankful to have you in it.


Note:Maybe you don’t have a CD to send me, but please write to me and tell me what unique part of yourself do you want to start to develop. sari@sarisolden.com