For almost three weeks I have been on a much needed silence treatment for my voice. I have been trying to keep my mouth shut, which as you know, is not easy for me. My pen has also not been that engaged, but with a long time of winter across the country already, my mouth was talking, talking, talking trying, I suppose, to warm up the place – conversation, holiday events, carol singing, family confabs, consoling, correcting, laughing too loudly; and, of course, making all those funny voices. My larynx took the toll, and my silence was the bill that had to be paid. It has been hard, but… I have been working at listening. People have called on the phone and all they got from me – most of the time – was a little squeak from me saying, “I’m trying to rest my voice,” and then I would listen. I whistled during the hymns during church – quietly. I played the radio loudly in the car. I sat with my dad who is almost 90 as he drove the car around town and I heard his memories. You know, if you are quiet enough, you can hear tears falling down someone’s cheek – even your own. I heard the purr of the cats I’m tending. They love the quiet! So I read a book and they purr in my lap. I heard Ragan’s voice reading poetry to me in the morning – words about how to change your life, how to accept your life, how to love your life, how to live the life you have been given. Other people’s words can tell us so much about ourselves, but we have to listen. And who doesn’t like hearing about themselves? Bette Midler’s character in “Beaches” said, “OK, I’ve said enough about me. Now, what do you think about me?” In this season of my life, I am trying to hear what I am supposed to do with this next half of my life. Ragan says hardly anyone lives to be 130 years old, but I’m planning on it! Therefore, with all that I have heard, read, and maybe learned in these hours of quite, I’ve come up with all kinds of ideas and dreams for the magnificent future ahead for us all – 2014 and onward! Maybe I’ll tell other people to keep their mouths shut, or maybe I’ll speak out against injustice, or maybe I’ll sing a lot more to use what I have: Comfort, comfort, ye my people… Tell them that the war is over. That is probably the best idea. Use it up. Give it all away. Sing ‘til the night is over and then harmonize with the Light. A bird just passed by my window, and I think she was doing that very thing! Well, time to fly, or – times flies. This is the way I feel, Cynthia
Posted on: Tue, 21 Jan 2014 19:32:04 +0000
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