Nudged: Listen to voices that I love

In my notes for this Nudge, I wrote: “Call nieces and nephews, close my eyes as we talk, and really listen to their sweet, distinctive voices.”

It’s interesting to me that just a few weeks ago I followed a Nudge to “Clear out voicemail messages” and listened to the voices of people who have passed. This week is about the living, is about reaching out to people I don’t get to see often enough, and I’m excited to make these calls. I can feel my heart expanding as I get ready to embrace this Nudge.

There are other ways to follow this Nudge. Maybe it’s an excuse to pull out your album/CD collection and listen to tunes from your younger days. Karen Carpenter, Dolly Parton, and Aretha come to mind as voices I love to hear. Or maybe I’ll search online to listen to classic holiday tunes performed by Bing Crosby, Harry Connick Jr., and Pentatonix. Or…maybe you’ll choose to head outside and listen to birdsong. Now that sounds like a lovely idea!

What Happened: So…probably should have held this Nudge until after finals week, or at least not during a busy time of travel and last-minute shopping and other holiday chaos. I got voicemail. On every call. Ha!

And you know what? It still worked. One of the outgoing messages was recorded when my sweet person was very young, and listening to it brought back fun memories. I listened to each one, and I fought down the temptation to call back repeatedly to listen again.

The Ah-Hahs: This still worked for me. I know when things quiet down I’ll get return calls, and I look forward to being very present in those conversations.

Until then, I’m going to take my own advice and dig out some old cassettes. Somewhere in one of those bins of holiday stuff is a recording of Bing Crosby and the Andrews Sisters singing “Mele Kelikimaka” — you’re singing it already, aren’t you? 🙂 Love it!