Wednesday, April 13, 2016

The Sounds of Home

Without fail, by 10 o'clock on most nights, my body decides it has had enough for the day and shuts down. If I'm on the couch all of a sudden I am sound asleep. Last night I fell asleep on the couch while watching TV. I kept going in and out of sleep until I finally went to my bed. At some point, before I went into deep REM sleep, I heard the sound of a guitar and beautiful singing accompanying it. I smiled and thought about all the sounds that emanate from a home and what they mean.

As a newlywed, it was just me and my husband enjoying each other's company. I learned he was a movie buff, and so I broadened my horizons and watched a lot of movies. As a newlywed there was the sound of laughter, love, and conversation with the background noise of TV.

Soon after, we had our first child. Now there were the sounds  of a baby - crying, pooping, laughing, aahing cooing, interspersed with the sounds of us. Us figuring it out, us talking to each other, and us sleeping. Oh, the joy of sleep. Sleep became more essential and movies took a back seat. But we kept talking and always tried to laugh. The background noise of TV receded for a bit.

More children and more sounds - until my quiver was full.

There's now some constant sounds in my world - Family Radio playing Christian music, the whistle of the kettle daily for a cup of tea, the pages turning as we all read various books, horsing around with Dad on a Friday night; board game battles; the crinkling of a bag to get to a beef patty; the popping sound as we opened the Styrofoam container that contained jerk chicken from our favorite place; the wind chimes on the front door signalling another person has arrived or left; sometimes the slamming of doors (but not often). On Saturdays, there was music - oldies, and Jamaican music played loudly throughout the house. The sound of housework was a constant also - cooking, cleaning, mopping, dusting, organising. These things weren't done in a vacuum, so more talking, and sometimes bickering. TV noise increased again as we would watch movies in my bedroom as a family because that's where the DVD was.  Of course, as we all grew and changed we all produced different sounds - boo hoos, achoos, hmms, uh-ohs, groans, moans, stomps, claps, singing, snoring, shouting, yelling and hahas; always haha. Sometimes we whispered but mostly we were loud. Our love is loud.

Noticeably absent from our lives was the sound of pets - we never had any.

And now I am here - guitar playing and singing. This moment makes me realize that all those sounds brought us here to a point of exploration, growth and creativity.

As I close my eyes, smile and drift off to sleep, I am grateful for the sounds that come from my house today; the sounds that make my house a home.

Unless the Lord builds a house, the work of the builders is wasted.
Children are a gift from the Lord; they are a reward from him.
Children born to a young man are like arrows in a warrior’s hands.
How joyful is the man whose quiver is full of them! Psalms 127:1,3-5 [NLT]

What sounds come from your home?


3 comments:

  1. This is a such a great post. It is amazing how you could hear the transitions of your life. Right now the sounds I hear are the keyboard as I type this comment, Sia being played loudly on my computer, my dog Izy licking herself and a few cars driving down the street. Sean is at work so the sounds he makes are missed right now. I really enjoyed this post!

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  2. This is a beautiful post. I loved it. It certainly made me smile and think about the sounds of my own home. The dominant sound, of course, is music, singing, instrumental, recorded or live . . . with a little dog barking thrown in for good measure. Oh, and there's always tea. (smile!)

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  3. lovely post,it really captured the sounds of life and growth-something I never really considered...sounds

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