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| Oh, redbud, how I love you. |
I hit “print” on my last blog post just after Groundhog
Day. That’s right, all of six weeks ago. Unlike Punxsutawney
Phil, I didn’t plan to hole up in a burrow until spring arrived.
Nevertheless, that’s what I did.
Happy spring. The view outside my burrow is green with pops
of pear-blossom white and redbud pink. Still, I wonder where I misplaced
February. And why is March racing past like a lamb chased by a lion?
I did go AWOL from the burrow a time or two. Most
recently, I accompanied my mother to an appointment she’d made with an
ENT--ear, nose and throat doctor—and an audiologist. She’s interested in
hearing aids.
Unlike eyeglasses, hearing aids don’t provide instant gratification.
They amplify volume but don’t do much to improve clarity of sound. That means
wearers have to work at “active listening,” that is, listening to fill in for
missed words while ignoring background noise. As long as a person wants to
hear, the task is doable.
When the ENT asked my mother why she was interested in hearing
aids, she answered, “My children think I need them.”
Oh, no. That statement, while crystal in clarity,
didn’t say she wanted to hear and
would do what it took to adapt to aids.
Neither the ENT nor the audiologist pushed her. They’d heard
what I did. Fortunately, the offer of a thirty-day trial appealed to my risk-averse
mom, plus it posed a challenge. She
likes challenges.
Overnight, she decided to try the aids. “I don’t want to be
isolated,” she said. Fair enough. Hearing
loss cuts people off from conversation, particularly from the asides,
off-the-cuff comments, plays on words, and comebacks that help
us understand the speakers' personalities and temperaments.
My mother will make her best effort with the aids, and I’ll
come out of my burrow. It was cozy in there, but, like my mom, I don’t want to
be isolated.
Your turn: Is the
weather in your part of the world spring-like or still wintry? Does warm weather
propel you out and about, represent allergy season for you, or make you long
for your puffy jacket and mittens?
