Auditory Detox

For the next couple of weeks I am awakened at the crack of dawn by a gentle tap on my window. Some mornings I find myself awake before the tap comes and actually wait for it. Even look forward to it. Other mornings I bumble around totally unprepared, my head perched on my neck like a deserted heron’s nest, my eyes squinting unaccustomed to so much light so soon in the day.

The Space Gardener and I have a little routine going. He always waits for me to get my second cup of coffee.  Then, I grab the hose, and he opens the valve. After that we listen.

As my ears go through an auditory detox, I slowly begin to hear things I never heard before. Even I know the difference between an airplane above and four-wheel drive below. I can also tell apart a riding mower from a weed-whacker. But rustling of a lizard’s feet in the dead leaves?!! The scampering of squirrels little claws as they race each other up the trunk of our huge oak? A woodpecker in our neighbor’s backyard tree?!! There IS a woodpecker living in my neighbor’s back yard!

Some mornings I feel like I walk in on a congress debate going on in the branches of our maple. Other times it’s so quiet I can hear my own thoughts. I swiftly avoid those and eavesdrop on a good-natured marital banter between Mr. and Mrs. Cardinal. Then the neighbor’s lawnmower drowns all other sounds and we shut off the water, put away the hose and are done for the day.

I feel like somebody took a plunger, unplugged and deep-cleaned my ears and I can hear, really hear for the first time in my life.  I wonder what else I've been missing out on, with all the loud noises drowning the sounds of life all around me?


The Lord God ...awakens me morning by morning,
He awakens my ear to listen as a disciple.
The Lord God has opened my ear... Isaiah 50:4,5