One Voice...

I've had many people over the years ask me where I got the idea to title my blog "One Voice" so I decided to blog about it! It all happened while I was in London's Hyde Park, attending the final evening of Proms in the Park where the headliner was none other than Barry Manilow.

Having been a life-long fan of Barry's, I was thrilled that my trip to Bosnia coincided with Barry's show at the Proms. I had already begun writing blog posts, though they had yet to be posted on my blog since I hadn't actually set one up yet. You see, I didn't have a name for it, and what's a blog without a name?

So there I stood in Hyde Park that night with 5,000 other folks, listening to Barry as he sang his encore entitled "One Voice." Though I'd heard the title track from the album, released in 1979 hundreds of times and knew the lyric and harmonies by heart, I had never HEARD it quite like I did on that evening. As he sang the words, "...all it takes is ONE VOICE... If only One Voice would start it on its own we need just One Voice facing the unknown, and then that One Voice would never be alone it takes that One Voice..." it hit me like a ton of bricks! That was it... that was my blog title... ONE VOICE!!! 

But for me, it wasn't going to be "One Voice singing..." but rather it was going to be My "One Voice SPEAKING". Yes. God had blessed me with the gift of writing and He wanted me to used that gift to reach others. He had given me a Voice and I had the honor and privilege of using it to reach out to people in ways I never even imagined. It started with my Bosnia blog, which followed my travels to meet with women who had lived through the unimaginable.... they had survived a war. They received funds from World Vision's Micro Finance Organization called Vision Fund and were now financially independent women. They very quickly became my heroes and my inspiration.

I was also privileged to use my One Voice to document Christopher's accident and recovery from a Severe Traumatic Brain Injury during the Spring of 2010, then also MY brush with death when I suffered a Pulmonary Embolism just seven months later, including  the ensuing sleeplessness, PTSD and depression from all that I had experienced in just a little more than a year. I have been urged by many to turn my blog, especially the posts about Christopher's Brain Injury into a memoir and I just think I might do that. His is a success story... a miracle story and one that perhaps needs to be told to a larger audience than I have here on my blog. But I'm working on that one. Stay tuned...

Below is the link to a video of Barry Manilow way back when, rehearsing and then performing "One Voice" and I just love his description of the song and how it came to be. Even if you're not a Manilow fan, the video is worth the look, so take a few minutes and watch it... I think you'll enjoy it and perhaps it will help you understand why I chose One Voice for the title of my blog. Cheers!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lQrcI1ZcK7M