Announce What You Want

What would happen if we announced what we wanted? Out loud. Would the sky fall down? Would we stun people? Would we stun ourselves? Would relationships change? Would our lives move in a different direction?

Why are we so reluctant to simply say what we want? Do we even know what we want? Announcing is not demanding or even asking, it’s just putting our wants into words. A statement. And yet…

My mother was the kind of person who would stop on the highway to pick up garbage, who eschewed milk in plastic bottles, and re-used wrapping paper year after year. She also saved all of those pieces of cardboard the dry-cleaners used in men’s shirts in the 70s.

Months after she died, I found myself in a room stacked with 61 boxes sent from her house in Cleveland. Boxes filled with photos, postcards, birth certificates, old passports.

And one piece of dry-cleaner cardboard with her distinctive handwriting and the words, “ANNOUNCE WHAT YOU WANT” in block letters.

I wonder if a therapist or friend asked her to just say what she wanted, say it out-loud. “Clurie, announce what you want!”

The cardboard is now pinned to the wall of my office reminding me and all who enter to announce what we want.

This week, give this a try. Stand tall, take a deep breath, and announce what you want. Out-loud.

Let me know what happens, how it feels, if it hurts or liberates or stuns. And if the sky falls down upon our heads, at least we’ve spoken some truth.