~their sweet voices~

And so I have had laryngitis the past two days and when you are a teacher, especially one that loves to talk, that is not a good thing.

Nope.  Not a good thing at all.

By Tuesday mid morning it had already started to set in and by the evening hours I knew that I was in big trouble.  Yesterday my voice was no more than a whisper and before our day even began at school, I told "the 20" that I really needed their help that day.  It was important for them to know that because they too like to talk.

We worked it out.

By noontime my good friend Toni from across the hall offered me a cup of special tea, a kind that would soothe my throat all the way down.  I'd heard of it before but never tried it, so what the heck?  I had nothing else to lose.  My voice was already gone.

As soon as I could leave yesterday, I went on home and absolutely just stopped talking altogether.  I drank another cup of that wonderful tea and fell fast asleep.  By 8:00 last evening, my voice had somewhat returned and even though it was not very strong, at least it was kind of/sort of back.  I know the kids will have to help me today by listening even more carefully and allowing me to stay a bit on the quiet side.  We have two more days this week and then we all receive a much anticipated spring break.

It is needed by the students.
It is needed by the staff.

Life gets pretty stressful at times, you know?
Mine.  Yours.  Everyone else's.

Our bodies react to stress in a whole lot of different ways.  I'd been pushing myself way too hard and way too far in the past month.  I hadn't had enough good rest, hadn't been drinking plenty of water, and allowed challenges that have come my way to get the best of me.  48 hours ago, my nearly 60-year old body told me something and the something was this.

"That'd be enough for right now.  I need you to give me a bit of rest."

I'm not a spring chicken but I'm not ready for the "stew pot" either.  I'm kind of one of those nice middle aged hens that scurry around the barnyard, fill nests with eggs and then go outside and see how the day is going.  Sometimes in the seriousness of life, it's hard to keep all of that in perspective. Taking life way too seriously has always been one of my character weaknesses and I'm afraid that it is a hard one for me to break.  I'm working on it and maybe before I leave this earth I will have figured it all out.

Or maybe not.
I guess we'll see how that all ends up.

So my message to you this day, my dear friends and family, is to take care of yourself.  Get your bodies to bed early once in a while and then dare to sleep in a few minutes at least a couple of times a month.  Drink water, drink water, drink water.  Find some way to have a quiet time each and every day, away from everyone and everything.  It's good for your spirit and your mental health and what's good for those two things is good for your body as well.  And oh yes, one other thing.

Take care of your sweet voice.
You never know when you might lose it.
You never know when you might need it.

My parents and my grandmothers on Christmas Day of 1976.  Their house had just burned down the day before and even though they lost everything they had that early Christmas Eve morning, they came away with the most important of things intact.  They had one another.  7 lives were spared that day and they were lives that truly mattered.

How I wish that I could hear their sweet voices once again!