Boxes of Words

We've been back in our Iowa home for nearly three weeks and have been unpacking boxes the whole time! Today we unpacked the very last box of books. It's also been three weeks since a monster bronchitis attacked me, rendering me unable to sing a single note and also unable to sustain even a simple conversation. I've been imagining my first official Sunday at my new church in Iowa City, in two days: "Hmm, the new priest doesn't say much." "They said she sings, but I didn't hear anything!"

Amidst these wanderings of the mind, I thought about all the thousands of words inside the books we freed from their boxes, setting them back in good order on neatly organized shelves. So many words! Maybe these countless words make up for all the words I've been unable to speak. Maybe I'm supposed to go into this new position as one who mostly listens. And maybe all the words, unspoken and newly taken out of boxes, just needed a time to rest.