"Courage is what it takes to stand up and speak; courage is also what it takes to sit down and listen." Winston Churchill
Listen. I love words. I love the sound of the word listen-the soft sounds-the first syllable emphasized-the ending is left almost like an invitation to lean in and be a part of something. The potential opportunity to receive a gift from someone, to participate in something beautiful, interesting, funny, challenging, confirming, lovely--I love this word. This is my word of 2019. Unlike last year, this word has, in its soft, gentle way, been shouting at me to be still for a minute and LISTEN. I was perusing the internet and fell into a tiny, intriguing rabbit hole on a site called Medium that hosts blogs from some fascinating people. They were posting people's words of the year. My favorite by far was by Nancy Gibbs-her word was "listen," and the title was, "We risk getting dumber and meaner when we don't listen." I started really thinking about when I felt dumb and mean. It was almost always a result of me hearing something but not really lis