Voiceless. Invisible. Embarrassed. Frustrated. These are just a few of the emotions I felt when recently I had laryngitis for a week. And yet, that week was one of new insight for me into what many of our kids must feel like every day of their lives.

There is a novelty when one can’t talk at first. People smile and try to help you. They’re patient as you write needed communications on paper. But what if you couldn’t write? Those with whom you were trying to communicate would just have to guess what you were trying to say. And what I learned is that even when you can write, you can’t express what you are trying to say fully enough with quickly jotted notes. Misunderstandings abound, even when both parties are trying hard to communicate.

And then, the novelty wears off. People begin to talk “around” you, as if you were not there. I had the experience of three people who are very close to me carrying on a lively conversation in a car as if I did not exist.

And how about the empathetic clerk at the cleaners who responded to my written note of “Marty Webb….pick up cleaning” by WRITING back to me, as if I not only couldn’t speak, but I also couldn’t hear! How cautious we must be in dealing with people with neurological differences to fully honor the abilities they do have.

After a few days, I got discouraged by my ineptness in writing down needed communication, and I found myself writing less and becoming more reticent to try and share.

In my week of silence, I gained a new understanding of and respect for people around the world who “have no voice”. It was just a catchy phrase before to describe the disenfranchised among us. What I learned though is that to have no voice is to be unable to participate in your world, to be invisible much of the time and to easily become exhausted by the effort to try and be seen and heard.

And I’m fortunate. My “having no voice” ended after a week. I pray for those souls on our planet who don’t reclaim a voice in a week, but who endure “voicelessness” for months, years or a lifetime. It makes me even more passionate about working tirelessly for our kids, to shape those lives we touch from the inside out so that their contributions can be shouted to the world.