Last night my husband and I heard the strangest sound. At first we ignored it and went back to sleep. It sounded kind of like far away church bells. Thirty minutes later, it started in again. By this time, we were awake and determined to find out what this new sound was.
I have one of those calming sound machines that helps me pretend that it is always raining. I love the rain, and my husband's snoring seems less obvious. After I turned off the rain, my first thought was that the noise had to be coming from my husband's cell phone. My ring tone is a recording of my kindergarten grandson sounding very much like a rooster, so I knew it couldn't be my phone.
Long story short, the noise did come from a cell phone. On Thanksgiving Day my niece left her purse on my daughter's driveway. The purse with all of its contents is now at my house scheduled for a delivery today. We were waking up to the alarm on her phone, and since it was an unusual noise in our world, we gave it our full attention.
It's amazing how we can tune our ears to really listen when we feel that it is necessary. Mr. R's post about November 27th being a National Day of Listening reminded me of the beauty of being a good listener. Too many times people are just waiting to jump into a conversation without really listening to what others are saying. It's also easy to put on filters when we are busy or interested in something else.
The art of listening needs to make a comeback. Taking the time to hear what others are saying and asking them meaningful questions goes a long way. To me, listening is more than what we hear with our ears. Listening is connecting to others by caring.