Sounds of life.....

I have never had any sense of smell. When I was very small, I found it curious when someone described smells. I thought maybe I wasn't concentrating hard enough, maybe smells were so subtle that you had to really be paying attention. I would hold things up to my nose, inhale.....nothing. Every now and then I will still try, with the same result. Finally my Dad told me that my Grandfather, his father, never had a sense of smell either.

Maybe that is why I am so in tuned to sounds. They have always been a big part of my life, my memory bank. Thomas Merton describes some sounds he remembers too in his journals.

Noise of the cook chopping or pounding things in the kitchen at Douglastown. Noise of tires singing past the house on the road outside, in winter or in autumn when the road is light and bare and hard. Noise of a fire, cracking and snapping in the grate, just lit. The sheaves of sparks that rush up the chimney from time to time. From "Run to the Mountain", the journals of Thomas Merton

They were part of his memory bank, a well that he drew upon from time to time, I suspect, as we all do. So now I will add some of my own, starting with yesterday morning. All these adding to the multitude of blessings I continue to chalk up.

#221 The gentle pit-pat of rain on the roof, sporadically increasing to a roar from time to time....making cats very nervous so that they run for comfort.

#222 Soft piano, coming from the radio....music, always music.

#223 Birdsong that breaks through, ushering in the morning and bringing in the dusk of evening....day done, rest from labor, no more regrets of the day.

#224 Song lyrics that bring joy and comfort to the hearer. Makes you feel you are not so alone, that others feel these feelings too.

#225 Loved ones or strangers lifting their sweet voices in song, to me there is no more beautiful sound than the human voice singing, laughing, it lifts hearts, makes you want to laugh even though you have no idea what is funny. There is something universal about it and it brings people together.

#226 Thankful for the memory that brings certain voices back even though they may be long gone....what once brought sadness and grief can now with time passing bring a smile.

#227 Two simultaneous purrs from very contented cats, one sounding very much like a pigeon or dove, and the other louder and deeper in tone, sounding more like a small muffled motor. Hence his name, "Briggs" for Briggs and Stratton motor company.

#228 The squeak of the floor by the door when you hit it just right; that means coming home after a long day, or just coming home from something else, but it is always a sound of welcome.

#229 The squeak and bang of my parent's old screen door. This happens about 50 times a day at their house.

#230 Always, always the wind in the trees. Some sounds are more noticeable for their absence. I miss this sound a lot, not many big trees where I live. When I go up north or back to California I drink it in like cool water.

I wonder about the sounds of Heaven.....I anticipate that nothing down here can even come close. Another thing to look forward to there, as well as getting a nose that works!
Still counting blessings because He is worthy of our counting!