Outcomes

As words come tumbling out of my mouth with rote and certainty, I ask myself, “Whose words are those?”  Whose voice is in my head that demands absolute obedience to that statement? Horrified, I realized that sure enough, the voice is not my own.  Rather, it belongs to various authority figures of my past. “Horrified” because those people were abusers or those with belief systems I can no longer abide.  How to combat such a conundrum? I question and examine and investigate. What is truth? Who says so and why? If I’m listening to a voice (new or old) I scrutinize the speaker.  Are they kind? Are they knowledgeable on the subject on which they speak? Have they given me advice in the past, and how did that turn out? I look back and I look at outcome. It so clearly tells me who to listen to and who to trust.