Today I’m feeling a bit washed out it’s been an exciting emotional but most of all a life changing week.
I decided to chill out and take the dogs up the big hill. It’s about 4 miles through the woods and dams with stunning views. Today I found myself taking a lot longer than normal as it suddenly hit me that I could hear pitch perfect silence at the bottom of the hill, there was no muffled white noise or whistling, something that had become the norm with my standard NHS hearing aids, not even the constant irritation of wind whistling through my ears. In that moment I realised just how difficult hearing had become with all those unwanted sounds. That clear silence literally was golden. As I walked on I could hear aeroplanes approaching the flight path into Glasgow airport some 5 miles away . The clarity that I could hear aeroplanes before I could possibly see then, I was blown away.
As I began walking again I quickly realised I had a better connection with the dogs too, I could hear them even though I couldn’t see them as they enjoyed their free run.
As I was walking I noticed I could also hear my heavy feet trudging in the mud, this brought a smile to my face . I continued to walk poking my cane step by step grinning. I took my finger off the pulse, a lapse in concentration as I engulfed myself in the joy of the sounds of the woods , it went from light to dark in the woods not a great thing with Usher Syndrome/Rp (Night blindness). I found myself With 2 dogs running around and as I stepped forward in the dark I ended up knee deep in water in a ditch! I didn’t even attempt to scramble out but took the time to listen to the sounds of the water running past my boots. It sounds stupid but it what such a joy.
As we approached the bottom of the hill in the dark silence I suddenly heard a lone bird singing. I stood still for about 5 minutes listening to it’s glorious chorus, I had never heard any of these sounds!
Boy what a day you really don’t realise what you’re missing.
Thank you so much to the Molly Watt Trust and GN Hearing.
