Sounds

I found myself full of sounds this morning and feel an intense urge to capture it and share it….

I woke up to the sound of the radio alarm – as I sit here, I am trying to remember the song that was playing when the alarm woke me and can’t for the life of me think of it!  That is odd because just about every day, the song that jolts me from my dream world into my reality tends to play over and over in my head all day – whether it is one I particularly care to hear all day or not!  Even on the rare days that doesn’t happen, if I think about it, it will come to me……not today! 

After that, the morning started out as it always does – I got up, let the girls out, decided what I wanted to wear and threw it in the dryer to freshen and fluff it, took the trash to the road, let the girls back in to feed them, let them back out, and then sat in one of my wing back chairs to take a breath before getting on with my routine.  It was in that wing back chair that I started to listen to the morning…

The room was almost dark – the floor lamp was turned on to just the first click on the 3-way bulb and all other lights in the house were out – the slightly orange tint of the sky that spilled into the kitchen window and the amber glow that the floor lamp cast gave the room a nice warm, calming hue.  I started to think about what I had on my plate for the day – the meetings I have scheduled, the tasks that I need to accomplish – and my mind started to wander to the weekend – finishing the Christmas decorations, going shopping to at least finish getting the gifts that have to be mailed out of state.  It was at that moment that I suddenly stopped thinking of that sort of thing and noticed the sounds – I rested my head against the back of the chair and closed my eyes so I could concentrate and take it all in: 

• the dryer was quietly humming and I could hear the buttons on my blouse click on the sides of the drum as my outfit for the day gently tumbled with the dryer sheet
• the back door was open and through the screen I could hear the girls quietly playing in the yard – the sound of them running through the leaves piled up around the bushes, the occasional playful growling as one would try to take over the lead in the chase, the music caused by one of them brushing up against the wind chimes placed around the deck and shed
• I could hear the traffic start to pick up along US 1 as others start off on their busy days – my mind wandered on to imagining where they were going and why some of them had to start out so early in the morning to get to their destination, but shut out those thoughts so that I could continue concentrating on the sounds
• the ice maker in the refrigerator finished a cycle – I could hear the ice tumble from the forms into the bin and settle in their spots along with the other ice – then the swooshing sound of the water being injected into the forms to start another batch
• I could hear what was missing, too – I realized there were no sounds of birds or crickets this morning – could it be too cold for them to be out singing their praises for a new day?
• a neighbor’s dog a few houses away started barking – did he see or hear something that sparked his attention or did he sense that the girls were out playing and decided to wish them a nice day?  I paused to see if the girls would join in and break the quiet of the morning, but they didn’t!  Neither did the adorable Beagle puppy next door – maybe he wasn’t up, yet!
• there were periods where there was NO sound, except the clicking of the second hand on the kitchen clock – I tried to hear something, but there was nothing – just silence and the seconds clicking away.  I could hear each click and found myself counting them and decided to stop and not let myself count the morning away

The clock ticking reminded me that I needed to snap out of it and get on with my day — as much as I was absolutely consumed with the calming nature of the last 20 minutes or so and wished I could just sit there for as long as the sounds would continue to captivate me, I knew I needed to get moving!  I let the girls in and sat down here to capture my wonderful therapy session!  Now that the sun is brightening up the room and the warm glow that helped set the scene earlier is gone, I am reminded that it is Thursday and I have things to do……

But – before I sign off and move on to getting ready for work, I want to add a video of Simon and Garfunkel’s Sounds of Silence to put an appropriate cap on a great experience and start of my day…..