Voices from Around the World
Welcome to Voices from Around the World — a soulful space where stories breathe, borders blur, and humanity speaks.
This isn’t just a podcast. It’s a gathering.
A circle of voices—intimate, courageous, and deeply personal—echoing from every corner of the globe.
Through heartfelt interviews and reflective solo episodes, we explore the lived experiences that shape our shared world:
The struggles that stretch us.
The triumphs that lift us.
The quiet moments that remind us we belong.
Each episode invites you into conversation with artists, healers, activists, educators, and everyday visionaries—people whose perspectives are rooted in culture, resilience, and truth.
And sometimes, your host steps into the silence alone, offering gentle reflections on global issues through the lens of compassion, curiosity, and care.
This is a space for listening deeply.
For honoring difference.
For finding connection in complexity.
Because in a world that often divides, Voices from Around the World dares to weave us together—one story at a time.
Voices from Around the World
Patience: The Gentle Rhythm of Growth and Healing
We explore patience as an active practice of presence rather than passive waiting, celebrating it as the gentle rhythm that holds space for growth, grief, and the slow miracles of becoming.
• Patience is not about forcing outcomes but leaning into uncertainty with curiosity
• Growth often happens beneath the surface where our impatience can smother potential insights
• Cultural expressions of patience exist in Japanese tea ceremonies, West African storytelling, and flamenco dancing
• Languages like Arabic (Sabra) and Swahili (Sabira) contain rich concepts of patience as endurance and spiritual resilience
• Impatience can serve as a messenger pointing to passions needing attention or boundaries requiring setting
• Three practices for cultivating patience: micro-pauses, slow rituals, and keeping a patience journal
• Guided breathing exercise demonstrates how to create space between thoughts and actions
• Closing affirmation: "Patience is not absence, it is presence. Patience is not surrender, it is strength. Patience is the soil where our deepest truths take root."
Don't forget to subscribe wherever you get your podcast. We'll be back next week with another voice from another part of our shared world.
Welcome to Voices Around the World, a podcast that brings together diverse voices and perspectives from different corners of the globe. Each episode features interviews with individuals from varied cultures, backgrounds and professions, allowing listeners to gain insights into different worldviews, experiences and ideas. To gain insights into different worldviews, experiences and ideas, from personal stories to discussions on global issues. The podcast aims to foster understanding, empathy and connection among people from all walks of life. Join us as we explore the rich tapestry of human voices and celebrate the diversities that makes our world so vibrant. I'm your host, obadiah, and today we're highlighting a space where stories breathe, silence speaks and healing unfolds in its own time, folds in his own time. Today, we lean into something we all know, yet seldom celebrate Patience. Not the clenched jaw kind of waiting, but the gentle rhythm that holds spaces for growth, for grief, for the slow miracles of becoming, for the slow miracles of becoming. Take a moment now to settle in wherever you are Walking, resting or simply wanting to exhale. Let your shoulders soften and let your breath find its natural pace. When we hear patience, we often hear weight, but patience is not passive, it is presence, the art of showing off ourselves. We often hear wait, but patience is not passive. It is presence, the art of showing up for ourselves moment by moment, breath by breath. Imagine a bud hiding within a silent branch. You cannot rush this unfolding. You water it, you trust the sun and you witness its opening in perfect timing. That is patience. Patience is not about forcing outcomes. It is about leaning into uncertainty with curiosity, trusting that what's meant to emerge will find its way.
Speaker 2:I remember a late autumn evening sitting on the worn wooden steps notebook on my lap. My mind was crowded with ideas, fragments of poems, half finished scripts, dreams that pause like a distant heartbeat. Yet none would land. I scribbled line after line, grew frustrated, then closed the cover. I looked up at the sky, painted and faded, pinks and grays. In that hush I heard a different kind of promise. That insight has its own pace and impatience can smother its whisper. So I said, with the not knowing, I'll let the quiet swell. And days later a single phrase glimmered on the page. That phrase became the seed of an entire episode. Growth often happens beneath the surface. Our impatience only buries the very spark we seek Across the globe.
Speaker 2:Patience is not just a virtue. It is woven into ritual, language and art. In Japanese tea ceremony, every gesture is deliberate. The whisking of tea, the elevation of the bowl, the gentle lift of the lips all honor time. In West African traditions, stories unfold slowly. Each pause invites us to rest in the shared heartbeat of our history. In Spanish, flamengo, the dancer's stillness before a flourish carries as much weight as the dance itself. Language itself holds wisdom. Arabic has Sabra, a word that embraces endurance, hope and grace. In Swahili, they have Sabira, which weaves patience with spiritual resiliency. These expressions remind us that waiting is sacred. It asks us to attune to rhythm, to recognize that every pause is pregnant with possibility.
Speaker 2:Impatience often arrives as discomfort in the body, a tightness in the chest, a quickening of thoughts. It propels us forward, but where are we rushing? Consider impatience as a messenger. It might point to a passion calling for more attention, a wound longing for compassion, a boundary that needs saying. When restlessness stirs, pause, place your hand on your heart and ask what are my rushing past? What does this impatience want me to notice? What am I rushing past? What does this impatience want me to notice? Each time we heed this message, impatience can become our guide rather than our fall. Patience is a muscle we can strengthen.
Speaker 2:Here are three practices to invite patience into your daily life. The first one is micro pauses. The first one is micro pauses. Pause for three full breaths before replying to an email, a text or your inner critic. Notice how awareness shifts the quality of your response. The second one is slow rituals. Choose a routine task, such as making tea, washing dishes, tending to plants, and perform it mindfully. Observe the textures, temperatures and sounds. Last but not least, patient's journal.
Speaker 2:Each evening, note one moment you waited, well, and one moment you didn't. Over time you'll trace your own growth, the slow arc of becoming. Allow these simple invitations. Turn waiting into practice and practice into Now. Let's practice together.
Speaker 2:I invite you to find a comfortable seated position. Close your eyes if you're able. Let your breath settle. Inhale smoothly for four counts. Hold for two. Exhale for six Again. Inhale smoothly for four counts. Hold for two. Exhale for six Again. Inhale smoothly for four counts. Hold for two. Exhale for six. Now, when you're ready, open your eyes. Now, in the silence that remains, I invite you to ask yourself what in my life is unfolding in its own time. Where might I lean in with gentleness rather than force? Feel the rhythm of your heart. Notice the spaces between thoughts. Let them be enough now I invite you to repeat this closing affirmation to carry with you Patience is not absence, it is presence.
Speaker 2:Patience is not surrender, it is truth. Patience is the soil where our deepest truths take root. Again, patience is not absence, it is presence. Patience is not surrender, it is strength. Patience is the soil where our deepest truths take root. Thank you for sharing these moments of stillness with me. May you walk deliberately, breathe, breathe deeply and trust the slow miracle unfolding within. Don't forget to subscribe wherever you get your podcast. We'll be back next week with another voice from another part of our shared world. Until next time, I'm your host, obadiah, and this is Voices Around the World. May you walk slowly, breathe deeply and bloom gently. Thank you for being here, thank you for listening and thank you for waiting. So Thanks for watching.