Whispers...

"Alexa, what is the weather outside?"

Alexa whispers, "It's 43 degrees right now." 

*sigh*

Brent tells me, "You whispered to her, or at least she thinks you did." (Alexa will whisper to you if you whisper back)

I woke up with laryngitis. I don't feel sick otherwise, just no voice. Sometimes it happens with allergies so I'm going with that. 

I used to get laryngitis at least a dozen times a year. Every single cold I got, every bad allergy attack. BOOM! No voice. Now it's fairly rare. Every few years. 

Why did it change? 

Because I quit smoking. 

I went from being sick almost all winter long. Rolling from one cold to the next. Voice rasped or completely gone. So not at all the picture of health, even though I was the picture of youthful health. 

But then I quit smoking and I went longer and longer stretches between even getting sick, let alone losing my voice. 

And it probably took two or three years to really accept that it was the smoking that did it. I quit smoking and I got healthier. In all sorts of ways. Who would have ever thought it?

Well except for the entire medical establishment and the studies that the tobacco companies did then tried to hide, and my parents and friends who didn't smoke and...

I was young. I was sure I knew better. And I really liked smoking. I smoked from the time I was 12 until I turned 20 and realized I should not be that winded doing aerobics. I've always said if they could find a safe way to smoke I'd do it again. I REALLY liked smoking.

I try to remember this about myself. That sometimes I am stubborn to my own detriment. (That sound you heard was Brent laughing at the word sometimes) I can get in my head that whatever I'm doing isn't really that bad, or that damaging to myself, because I've for sure got it under control. Or I for sure am smarter, faster and stronger than everyone else who has suffered damage from whatever it is. 

I think we all do that. It's the times we throw out our backs trying to move the couch by ourselves and people say, "Why would you even do that alone?" And we have to admit we would say the same if it was them throwing out their back. I mean, clearly, it took two big guys to deliver that couch why did you think you could lift it on your own? Ridiculous...never mind that I have for sure rearranged all the furniture in my house by myself before, I'm the exception not the rule!

No, no, I am not. 

We are all subject to the laws of gravity and age. We can handle it in different ways, but we are subject to them. It's why I lift weights and do cardio. Age and gravity are coming for me (have come?), I want to make sure I'm strong enough to continue to face them. I want to make sure my balance is good so I don't fall and break a hip. I want to live to be 100, after all, so I need to listen to the experts when they say, Pick up heavy things and put them down again. Make sure you can balance on one leg. Make sure you can sit on the floor and get back up unassisted. Keep your heart and lungs as healthy and strong as you can. 

And stop smoking. 

It's really bad for you. And me. All of us. Really. Trust me, even if I'm whispering it to you instead of shouting.