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As I watched the church service on my computer, I felt my frustration growing with each song. I miss singing in the choir. Try as I might to sing along, I sounded terrible.
I’m rarely speechless. I know you find that hard to believe, but those who know me well think of me as a talker. Today I felt speechless. It wasn’t such a bad thing really because I was working from home and had no one to talk to. But even that little conversation that often runs through my mind was absent.
It seems at times that we are bombarded by the hard facts of life. We lose a loved one, a relationship, a job, our health, and the list goes on. Growing up we learn gradually how to deal with these difficult events.
I’m intentionally writing this prior to the end of our Presidential election. As I contemplate civility, I am struck by the fact that it’s not about who wins or loses, it’s about being civil all the time. Robert Fulghum, author, and minister, dealt with civility in his 1986 book, All I Really Need to Know I Learned in Kindergarten. He provided a list of things we learn in kindergarten like manners matter, use your words (not your fist or feet), share, clean up your own mess, and the one we still hear today, be kind.
It might be a friend, or loved one, or co-worker. Sometimes it’s even a stranger. The conversation starts out normally enough but along the way it plunges into the depths of “oh, woe is me!”. We have all had it happen to us. In truth, most of us have done it to someone else at one time or another. But when someone starts verbalizing their concerns to us about how unfair life is, or how miserable they are, we need to remember they want someone who will just listen.
During the early months of our pandemic I threw myself into my knitting. It’s my pastime of choice and usually very soothing. Unfortunately, my anxieties, my posture, and the intensity of my efforts left me in pain and stressed. I had always worked to avoid knitting mistakes as though my life depended on it. Then I read a book about the ergonomics of knitting which said one of the first things a knitter should learn is how to fix mistakes.
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