Voice

I know my cold is getting better, because now I am hoarse. Barely able to speak above a whisper. It almost always happens when I get a cold, that toward the end of the illness, I lose my voice. Isn't it funny how I refer to it as losing my voice?

The other day a friend used a phrase in an email, and I knew immediately it came from Alexander Pope. I knew that, because I know how he sounds. Although obviously I have never heard Pope's voice. It just sounded like him.

At work I make intercom announcements, and I try to be pleasant. I don't want the sound that hits people's ears to be annoying or shrill. A customer remarked that I should do voice overs. I am often told that I have a nice voice. When I call someone on the phone, I always identify myself. A pet peeve of mine is when someone calls me and if there is no caller ID, he doesn't identify himself and I am supposed to guess who it is. So I try not to be that person. A big part of my day at work is communicating with my managers on their portable phones. I always start off by saying, "Hi. It's Susan." One of them commented the other day that I always do that, but I never need to. "No one sounds like you," she said.

No one sounds like me. And no one sounds like you, either. Each of us is unique, with his own special voice. One of my old default positions in life was to just shut up when I felt I was not being heard. I was very good at being quiet, of not having a voice.

One of my intentions for the new year is to use my voice more. Last year I began asking for what I needed or wanted, with great results. This New Year's Day, when I have lost my voice, my intention is to make my voice heard. In a positive way. For good.

What about you? I hope you have not lost your voice, because we need to hear what you have to say.

Happy 2013.

Susan

Wisdom

"A man should never be ashamed to own he has been in the wrong, which is but saying that he is wiser today than he was yesterday." Alexander Pope

If we are living and learning and growing, it's a given that we are going to change our minds about some things and our opinions about some others. I respect people who can admit when they are wrong. It says a lot about your character when you can do that.

When my kids were in elementary school, one of the neighborhood moms became upset with her son for something and grounded him. Then she cooled down a bit and thought about it. She concluded that she had been having a bad day and overreacted to what he had done, and the consequence was unwarranted. She went to him and apologized for being so harsh with him and told him he was not grounded. She told him she had made a mistake and wanted to make it right. Wow. I think some parents who had second thoughts would tell the children the punishment was over, but wouldn't admit they had been wrong and wouldn't have said they were sorry. I really admired this woman for the way she handled it. I imagine her son already knew he was being treated unfairly, and she sent a powerful message when she admitted it.

None of us is perfect, and the longer we live the more we see that there is much to learn. It is the truly wise person who can see where they went wrong and do something about it.

Susan