Voices On the Radio

[bnewman]

I hear voices: mostly those of gods or legendary figures that I'm acquainted with, sometimes those of trees and other plants.  During my year of mental health crisis this got seriously out of hand, but on the whole they have always been gentle, kind, and supportive.  They don't presume to tell me things I don't already know or shouldn't expect to know, and they don't tell me to tell other people what to do.  Typical messages include "I love you," "You got this," "Don't try to listen to me while you're crossing the street," and "Why don't you try [some relatively reasonable devotional practice] today?"

I'm satisfied with this arrangement — more than satisfied, indeed profoundly grateful — and am not trying to "fix" it.  I'm afraid I don't have a lot of concrete advice for people who hear voices that are unkind, at least not out of my own experience... except this: if you need help, get help, and remember that it's the unkindness that's the problem, not the bare experience of having other people in your head.

lyrics by Benjamin Newman

ttto: "Every Little Bit of It" by Carrie Newcomer

listen to this song
 

/: G - C - / Em - D - :/

 

I'm receiving a transmission, it's from Somebody Upstairs

Nothing I don't already know, it's just a note that Someone cares

The radio is always on, and I know that that's a risk

I keep my finger on the knob, I think I got this

 

/ Em C G D / / / C ... /

 

There it is, just above the threshold of noise

I can feel Your love in the sound of Your voice

Turn it on, tune it in, it says: be still and know

The voices on the radio

 

I admit there was a time when the signal got too loud

I couldn't hear my friends' concerns above the roaring of the crowd

And yet I knew I couldn't bear to throw my radio away

I learned to turn the volume down before I press play

 

But there it is, just above the threshold of noise

I can feel Your love in the sound of Your voice

Turn it on, tune it in, it says: be still and know

The voices on the radio

 

/ " / / Em C GD C / - - -D - /

 

There it is, in the stillness behind the commotion

There it is, in the sweetness of acts of devotion

In the static, in the signal, in the silence and the songs

And the curious knowing to Whom I belong

 

The radio most people have, it only gets the local news

My antenna's not the same, I didn't have the chance to choose

But of the channels I receive, I stick to those that make me smile

If I hear something unkind, I turn the dial

 

And there it is, just above the threshold of noise

I can feel Your love in the sound of Your voice

Turn it on, tune it in, it says: be still and know

The voices on the radio