Noise

My ears are tired.

As I write, our neighbor is mowing his lawn right outside the window and a very large tree is being chopped down in the other neighbor's parkway. Smash, bang, buzz, grind!

When I visited my mother yesterday they were mowing the lawn at the nursing home. Throughout our visit on the patio I kept saying "Huh?" to everything Mom said because I was competing with multiple leaf blowers.

As "homework" for the church call committee, I recently listed to a sermon on-line. In order to hear better, I used external speakers. This person said some things very loudly then spoke very softly to emphasize an idea. Unfortunately, in order to hear the soft speaking I had the volume so high that the loud comments physically hurt!

My husband snores. Usually I push on his shoulder, he turns on his side and the snoring stops, but sometimes I give up and go sleep on the couch.

Yesterday a 50-something man from our church who was receiving chemotherapy simply didn't wake up in the morning. I can't imagine the grief of his wife waking up to that quiet.

I'm not complaining about noise any more. Quiet can be tragic.