Lift-Off

Fully committed to moving on, this Common Yellowthroat is taking off! Light on his feet and fully outstretched, he's leaving nothing on the table.

Common Yellowthroat - Copyright 2025 JeanMaher.com

I love the photo of this songbird fully outstretched. I had no idea his legs were that long. If he was bigger, maybe he'd be a wading bird?

Speaking of letting go, I feel ready to let go of a habit of mine: needing to fill the air with chatter, when silence or a single word will do. I'm not very comfortable with what seems like unending silence stretching out in space in a conversation. Even when it looks like I am quiet, my mind is usually carrying on with a whole bunch of things, pushing me to fill the space with extraneous words that just don't need to be said. Kind of annoying. I'm now much more aware that I do it, which is progress.

I know that it's common to have a busy mind and not so common to be still. To me, a pause in a conversation feels like an eternity, especially when I think I need to respond right NOW. Closely related, is how I interrupt, jumping ahead and assuming where the conversation is going. I don't do it all the time, but enough that it makes me uncomfortable to admit it to myself.

It really isn't hard to stop speaking needlessly, but it certainly is a habit that I fully embraced for a long time, fearing I better have an answer immediately, or else (as if it would appear that I wasn't paying attention to the conversation I was having with someone)!

It just takes practice.

There's freedom to be gained in just letting conversations naturally flow. I recently read that words are like spells and should be used wisely, further incentive to use words carefully!

I like that I can leave behind those extra words that don't need to be said, like that bird is leaving behind whatever is on the branch. I can take a breath and pause, land listen. I'll take those extra few moments to think about what I want to say, and most importantly whether anything really needs to be said.

I'm just going for it, like the warbler in the photo.