Familiar Sounds

There are familiar sounds

all around

That we don’t always notice

But If I name a thing

You’d know exactly the cling

That thing I name will make

The sound of a nail clipper

Clipping away

At somebody’s nail too long

The twist of the lock

In the middle of the knob

Before you go to sleep

A bird just landing in a tree

The rustling it makes in the leaves

On your way out the door in the morning

The tap, tap, tap

Of your fingers on the glass

Typing a message to a friend

The shifting of the cushion

With a soft squeak or creek

Sitting down to watch the tv

The shutting of a drawer

The rails rolling and drawer closing

When you put your things away

The pulling of a tissue out of the box

Or the shuffling of clothes

When looking for socks

So many sounds

We don’t always consider

Are a day to day assurance that the world’s turning right

Behind the Poem...Strang Feelings

I think there are a lot of little things in our lives that we take for granted. It's these little sounds we hear every day that really make home feel like home, or a strange place feel like a strange place. When you've lived in the rural countryside for a while, you seriously notice those cars passing by after moving into town. And vice-versa, it feels deafeningly quiet when the cars are gone if that's all you've ever known. It's so important to take in these sounds that we find familiar, to just sit and listen to your surroundings. There is nothing more peaceful than sitting somewhere you find genuinely comfortable and then listening to it. 

I'm not very well versed in the effects of meditation where you close your eyes and focus on one thing, but I do know that I love to just sit back and hear the birds chirping when I open my windows on Saturday to air the house out. It reminds me of being out on my mom's farm when I was little. We had around 100 acres of farmland with cows, horses, chickens, pigs, rabbits, cats, dogs, and what have you. I would go outside and play in the mud puddle in the driveway and chase the dogs around, and try to catch the newborn kittens in the barn (cats never stop multiplying). It's strange now to have a car passing by every minute in front of my house, but at least I can hear the birds and the wind when I open the window. 

Sounds can mean the difference between comfort, fear, joy, and stress. Take in the sounds around you. Learn what sounds that make you feel at peace. Maybe it's the wind, maybe its water splashing in a creek, maybe it's a honking and constant traffic outside your window. Take that sound, hold on to it, and be near it.

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