On October 12th I had vocal cord surgery. My dear, sweet boyfriend was kind enough to take me into the hospital early in the morning. When I walked in the door at Harris Methodist Southlake Hospital it almost felt as if it was a vacation, the staff was so kind.

When I woke up my sweet friend from church, Lori Petty, picked me up from the hospital. ‘

My daughter had soup, croissants and a bouquet on my counter to welcome me home. She also wrote me a very sweet note.

I had so many friends who were praying for me and the vocal cord surgery. I was very humbled and grateful.

I could not talk at all for five days but on the fifth day I started. My voice was lower than it had been before in tone and I liked it a lot.

I made the mistake of using bad words for a bit and then caught myself. I had been forced to whisper for over a year due to this ailment and I thought I had learned to choose my words more carefully through this experience.

There were things that had happened recently that caused me to become frustrated with life. My brother’s marriage of 35 years fell apart at the seams. One of my best friends had passed away and I lost two dear pets whom I had loved.

When I get frustrated I can choose wrong words to vent my frustration. That does not do anything to solve the problems.

So I knew I had to get a grip.

Out of a need to divert my attention from all of the sadness that had enveloped my world I started watching the Netflix series, The Good Place. I became hooked and binge watched the whole first season.

In The Good Place, they are not allowed to use bad words so instead of saying “f…  you” they say, “fork you.” I though that was so cute and funny. Every bad word had an r inserted to transform the word, so that sh.. would turn into shirt and so on and so forth.

Yet, I realized I needed to choose other words entirely to get my point across, so as not to offend the Holy Spirit.

I remember running across a quote one day which said, “Profanity is a weak mind trying to make a strong point.”

I am trying very hard to use my new voice to honor God and I believe strengthening my mind in the process.