Deaf

When I say deaf, what’s the first thing that comes to mind? Probably something to do with hearing, or ears. Or your children when you are trying to get them to clean up their room.

I think that there are a variety of “deaf’s”. I think that you can’t hear because you physically have something wrong. I think that you can’t hear because you don’t want to hear it. This one is often put into place for bad news. I think that you can’t hear when your child, spouse, or pets have needs that aren’t being met. These are those silent words, the ones that are usually conveyed by a look or a request that is pleaded onto tired ears, and you are distracted and give the answer that they want to hear, but don’t follow through with the actions that prove you heard their needs.

So now that you have had that little trip down definition lane, let me give the official dictionary version.

Deaf – adjective – 1. lacking or deficient in the sense of hearing. 2. unwilling to hear or listen : not to be persuaded.

Maybe Webster and I were related in a former life or something.

I think my dog (yeah he is staying) Bailey, is deaf. At first I thought he was just unwilling to listen, which is politely saying ignoring your happy self, but now, not so much. When I walk down the hall and call him, his ears perk up, but I think he is straining for something, just trying to hear my voice. He sleeps so soundly that I have to touch him to wake him up to go outside of a morning, and other times, I think that his sense of smell takes over and he smells my scent better as I approach and gets up on his own.

Watching him sitting in the living room straining to hear me, or listening intently, I don’t really know, has made me think, how we are so similar. We are capable of drowning out our husband as he talks about work, we are capable of drowning out our mother on the phone while we watch TV. We are all guilty of being deaf. Sometimes we just don’t hear, and other times, we just don’t want to hear. We hope that by ignoring it, the problem will go away, and instead, the problem usually ends up bigger than we could have imagined. We end up alienating our spouses, our children, our parents, and our pets.

The last few weeks I have been busy with work, school, and various other things. You know like cleaning, and laundry, and remembering to run the full dishwasher, and writing papers, and taking quizzes. I’ve also been deaf. I’ve worried about me, looked out for number one, and my husband, my dogs, and mostly myself have suffered because of it. Instead of being able to go home and relax, I’ve had to go home and play catch up on laundry and cleaning and homework. And I haven’t got to lay in bed at night and love on puppies, and I haven’t thrown a toy and played with Blaze. I’ve been deaf to their needs and their wants. I’ve missed my husbands’ pleas for time together that don’t involve homework and cleaning.

So like Bailey, I’m going to have to stop what I’m doing, and hold my breath, and strain just a little to catch what I’m missing. Because if I were to die next week, I wouldn’t want them to wish that I hadn’t been so deaf for so long and to wonder how different things would have been if I had paid more attention. If I had just took the time to listen.


~Lots of people talk to animals.... Not very many listen, though.... That's the problem. ~Benjamin Hoff

Learn to get in touch with the silence within yourself and know that everything in this life has a purpose. ~Elisabeth Kubler-Ross

We have two ears and one mouth so that we can listen twice as much as we speak. ~Epictetus