You followed the safe path, but is your heart voice challenging your head voice now?
If you've been raised with strong traditions and some expectations from family, it may be difficult, or confusing when you hear a contrasting voice in your own "body!" I say "body" because while many of us, including me, spent most of our school years pointed in the safe direction of a good job with financial security, my contrasting voice came from my heart. And I knew it immediately.
If you find yourself now questioning the traditional path you may have taken, ask yourself what seems to be missing. Do you want more time for something you’ve put on the back burner? Does your present career leave you empty? Have you had an "A-HA" experience? Is fear of disappointing people holding you back from giving your heart...a voice? Often the same traditions you held dear for so long hold the key to what you are really meant to do. Once you start listening to your inner voice, you’ll be amazed where it takes you!
My grandfather sailed with my 15 yr old father from Matera, Italy, to America so that my dad could have a chance for the American dream for the family he would one day have. For many years fulfilling the role of dutiful daughter in my traditional Italian family meant respecting our family's heritage, working hard, and getting a good, secure job. I had no idea I would need to let those markers of success go when I first stepped into that homeless shelter to read bedtime stories to children. But I did let them go, and that opened the way to being free to pursue what would give my life meaning and bring me even closer to my family. Never could I have imagined that my traditional Italian parents' rituals and priorities would have guided me to the realization that there might be something I could do to ease the pain for these children at bedtime.
