Drink More Tea, Reflect More Deeply, and Wear a Red Scarf

What laryngitis is teaching me.

I’m learning a bit this week about gratitude and self-care, having contracted a severe case of laryngitis that leaves me completely without a voice.

Given that my voice is sort of what I do, I am uniquely at a loss without it. No podcasts. No interviews. Not to mention any conversations with loved ones. It’s a strange kind of locked in. I’ve had laryngitis before, but I’m looking at it differently this time. I should have known better than to let this happen.

My throat has always been my one particularly vulnerable area; you might say it’s my strong spot spiritually yet my weak spot physically. So when the weather is cold, Williamson needs a scarf around her neck. No walking around in cold weather without one. No exposing myself to open doorways, outside conditions, air conditioners, etc. that blow cold on my neck.

I knew that. I knew when I was walking around Santa Barbara with girlfriends last week that it was too cold for me to be outside without a coat. When I was seated at a restaurant in front of an open door through which a chilly wind was blowing, I knew it was a problem. You can’t ask that doors be closed in restaurants these days because of Covid, but I could have asked my friends to squeeze me in at the other end of the table. They totally would have!

Yet I didn’t, and for only one reason: I wasn’t taking my body’s needs seriously enough, and felt it would be taking up too much space to ask others to help me. This is specifically for those of my readers who are on the other side of fifty. Taking better care of our bodies is not a luxury. It is not self-indulgence. It is an absolute necessity that we take our health seriously enough to retain our ability to be vital forces for good at this critical hour.

Photo: Roman Makhmutov

I’ve received a lot of advice from friends, of course, from drinking more ginger tea to wearing a red scarf around my neck! I’m doing everything I can. I feel like my laryngitis is a friendly slap on the wrist from the universe: a sudden loss of power of any kind throws you back on yourself and makes you think. The effect of cold on your throat is nothing compared to what that cell phone can do to your brain, you know. That one is harder though, isn’t it? — because it isn’t an issue of self care; it’s an addiction. We are with cell phones today what a couple of generations back were with cigarettes. We all know it, and slowly but surely we’re starting to admit it to ourselves. Now we have to do the work of weaning ourselves in whatever way we can.

So I’m going to do my best to make something good out of my period of forced silence. Having been under the weather, I’m not moving or thinking or writing as quickly as I’d like. I have much to say about current events, and of course I want to be all ready and strong of voice for the Love in Action event I’m co-hosting on November 5th and 6th. I hope you’ll follow me on twitter and Instagram for the smaller missives that are usually prelude to something I’m writing more on for the substack.

I remember the Joni Mitchell lyric, “You don’t know what you’ve got till it’s gone.” As this moment in my life makes me realize even more deeply how grateful I am for my throat, I realize as well how grateful I am that anyone wants to hear what I have to say! And that includes you, of course. I have never taken my career for granted, but I think I’ve taken life itself for granted in ways that I hopefully will no longer do.

I hope you have a beautiful day, and for those of you in cold weather - please! Wear a scarf! We need to be strong for the work ahead…