The following is an excerpt from John Grisham’s graduation speech at the University of  North Carolina at Chapel Hill published in the Christian Science Monitor:

“When a writer finds the voice, the words flow freely, the sentences become paragraphs and pages and chapters, and the story is told, the writer is heard, and the reader is rewarded.

In this respect, writing is a lot like life itself. In life, a voice is much more than the sound we make when we talk. Infants and preschoolers have voices and can make a lot of noise, but a voice is more than sound.

The voice of change, the voice of compassion, the voice of the future, the voice of his generation, the voice of her people. We hear this all the time. Voices, not words….

To be heard, you must find a voice. For your ideas to be accepted, for your arguments to be believed, for your work to be admired, you must find a voice.”

Here’s to finding  resonance,

crystal clarity of soundness,

thought and being one,

you, no observer,

audience to your life

but the living of it

poised

home

no running start

already there

“Each individual must fill his own niche in time and eternity.” Mary Baker Eddy, Retrospection and Introspection

“A man’s gift maketh room for him…” Proverbs

The following poem is by Lucille Clifton from her volume of poetry entitled Quilting:

blessing the boats

(at St. Mary’s)

may the tide
that is entering even now
the lip of our understanding
carry you out
beyond the face of fear
may you kiss
the wind then turn from it
certain that it will
love your back      may you
open your eyes to water
water waving forever
and may you in your innocence
sail through this to that