This past year has been a time of learning new skills, getting used to staring at a screen or looking down a camera lens. It has felt like launching our talks, prayers, thoughts, even ourselves, into an empty void.

Being a writer I’m well used to publishing my work without much acknowledgement or thanks. When someone appreciates it, it makes my day and gives me the push to keep going.

Being heard is the most precious thing.

Do you know anyone who is giving their everything but not getting anything back? Is there something you can do for them? To say ‘I hear you’, ‘I see you’. Right now I’m imagining you all bent over your phones or iPads reading this. I’m looking into the emptiness and hoping someone is there, benefitting from this.

I came across the line this morning, ‘I don’t need to be heard, I need to learn to hear.’ Maybe it’s time to pause our talking or writing or striving for recognition. Maybe it’s time to hear; to look for people who are crying for help in the darkness, who feel like no-one is listening.

Of course I would love recognition for what I do, but I know that it’s so much more important to acknowledge the people who need to be heard right now.

So, say a loud amen to the ministers preaching to a faceless congregation, wildly applaud the authors launching their work into the silent unknown, listen out for the whispered cries, search for the forgotten ones.

Everyone deserves that.