As a child Pat always felt happiest when she would sing. She would bring happiness to everyone with her voice. Soon - her singing became like a badge of honor. The singing stopped being about the joy she brought to others - and started to be about the spotlight she took.

One day while performing in front of a massive crowd, Pat was horrified to find that her throat had closed into a sticky, scratchy seal of silence for 8 seconds in the middle of a beautiful song. Though she could finish - she pushed through the strain and damaged her voice.

This humiliation shook Pat to the very core and knocked her immediately down to the bottom rung of the ladder that she had built reaching to the heavens.

Though this had been her absolute worst fear, thinking that she would surely die without the roses and accolades and "bravo! bravo!"s that she had grown accustomed to hearing.. she didn't die. Some people laughed with her. Some people laughed at her. Some people criticized her. and some people shrugged and said "You can try again."

Pat sat in quiet meditation and thought "My voice is still here. But instead of the false perfection that I projected.. now - it's flawed. I can choose to sing, in spite of my flaws and find that joy that I once had.... or I can strive to seek that illusion of perfection again."

Her voice never went back to what it used to be.... the flaw remained. But it also served as a reminder and precaution to keep the music about the beauty that is given and shared with others - and not about what is taken for self. Though the sound was imperfect -it was true. And that's what made it beautiful.

-The End-

Really liked this T :) its like multiple posts within a post! hehehe super fun!!!!