Shut your mouth and listen.

I think I'm beginning to get over the illness I've been grappling with for the past week.

I never did feel too bad. My worst days came in the middle of the week, and even then, I wouldn't have even known I was sick were it not for the fact that I was coughing, my throat was slightly swollen and scratchy, my hearing was slightly impaired, and my sinuses were congested and drippy. It sounds a lot worse that it actually was. The rest of my physical being felt fine, and I was mostly in a good mood all week.

The one thing this did, and which I am thankful for in the long run, is force me to be more quiet and listen.

I'm pretty quiet in the first place. The people who know me well, and even not so well, can testify to that. And I consider myself to be a pretty good listener. I'm usually the person in the room who isn't saying a word, but can tell you what everyone else is talking about, quite often even word-for-word what they said, despite how many conversations are going on. I don't often let on like I hear everything, but that's another matter entirely.

Getting back to the topic at hand, using my voice this week has been a challenge. So that means I was inclined to talk even less than usual. And singing has been difficult, even nearly impossible at worst. I almost didn't even go to choir practice this week, because I wasn't contributing much to the overall sound. But I get credit for showing up and it helps to at least hear the songs, so I muddled my way through.

Not talking is no big deal for me. I commonly go hours, upon hours without speaking. It feels good not to talk. But singing, as I'm sure anyone who ever reads what I write knows, is a different story. Especially when there's music going. It's so hard for me to keep my mouth shut. There was one time this week when I was coming home from school, and one of my favorite BarlowGirl songs came on the radio. Now, if there's ever a place that I always especially feel like singing, it's in the car, particularly when I am alone. I simultaneously cheered and groaned; cheered because I was excited and I hadn't heard it in a while, and groaned because I knew I wouldn't be able to sing it. But I tried anyway. I choked and coughed my way through. Definitely not the best rendition of that song ever heard.

So with a few exceptions, such as that incident, I just resigned myself to the fact that I was going to have to keep my mouth closed until I got over this junk. So I've just been listening to my music, instead of taking part in it. I've been listening more in general.

I'd like to say that I heard something profound, or that I learned some deep piece of wisdom. But I didn't. I've just been experiencing things from a different perspective. And it's reaffirmed to me the value of listening, of not saying too much or constantly having to make yourself be heard. I usually think I have a pretty good handle on that, but as with other things I tend to think I have a pretty good handle on, I come to realize at some point that I could use a little refresher.

It's a word that's thrown around a lot, but perspective really does work wonders.