Listening

 

My aunt turned 87 this week and we celebrated yesterday with dinner at a mutual friends' house. I have been working on my listening skills. It came in handy last night as there were 8 people at the party and 4 conversations going on all at once for about 3 hours. That's a lot of numbers in one paragraph, huh.

 

This last year I have been challenged after being diagnosed with presbylarynx. Google says this about it: "Presbylarynx is a condition in which age-related atrophy of the soft tissues of the larynx results in weak voice and restricted vocal range and stamina. In other words, it is the loss of vocal fold tone and elasticity due to aging which affects voice quality."

 

Old lady voice. Let's be real. It doesn't hurt but it is irritating. When I'm in a room full of talking people, I can't really respond if I have to project my voice over other noises. It makes it difficult to call my dogs in. If I had to yell right now to save my life, this would be my last blog post. I went to see a speech therapist last year and she gave me a lot of great advice for living with this condition. Developing the habits I need to keep my voice from getting worse is a challenge. Basically, I'd rather just not talk. So, I listen. It doesn't make the condition go away but the point is that I don't want it to get worse. Plus, I learn so much when I listen.

 

Back to last night. We heard some great stories from everyone in the room. My cousin and her hubs made a trip to Phoenix recently and there was a great story about trying to catch an old fashioned taxi cab to and from a basketball game (Oregon Ducks vs. Arizona State). Their dilemma was only made worse by them having to see the Oregon Ducks lose a game while being seated in an Arizona State fan club area. If you know any Ducks fans, you'd know they dress in a fashion so that no one can make any mistake who they are rooting for. Can you imagine having to sit with the rival team fans? Me neither. LOL! Later, my cousin's hubs told a story about going out for a walk here in Yuma the first time he visited, not knowing how awful dark it gets and the fact that we don't have street lights out in our neighborhood ... well ... he got lost and ended up sitting at the closed grocery store ALL NIGHT until the sun came up. (I should add here that laughing hysterically also causes me problems with my vocal chords, so I have to keep my laughter in check. Not easy with this crowd.)

 

We also learned that my aunt's family moved to Oregon from Nebraska due to the great depression. We had a nice discussion about wringer washers, outhouses, and life without electricity. These are the things that stuck with me. There was so much more but lately I am able to hold on to only a certain number of memories.

 

Well, now I've come to the end of my post. One of my fellow bloggers wrote a nice post this week and it prompted me to sit still long enough to write this. I'm having a terrible time getting back to writing but I am terribly grateful for the times like last night that give me a whole lot of things to think about.

 

I'll close this with a question: Can you listen to 3 or 4 conversations at the same time?

 

love, susan