Giving thanks on what hearing I have left

I don't do this every morning giving thanks but on occassion when I do come around to it do I realize the gift I have with what hearing I have left. And I give thanks the technology in the form of a hearing aid which has enabled me to access sound all around me. Though not perfect but I am still thankful that I am able to hear well with it. I am thankful for my mother and father for giving me my first hearing aid at age 2 progressing to the point of understanding the spoken words without even looking. It's a wonderful thing when a hearing aid enables one to hear beautiful music, the sound of thundering waterfalls as I do my hikes along the trails in a forest, the birds, my kids laughing making funny comments, and talking to friends, my sister or mother on the phone on a weekly basis and enjoying the intoxicating piano music while I play ragtime and novelty rags on my piano. There is a certain level of appreciation when it comes to the gift of sound that can only be appreciated by those who have access to it. For some it may not be as complete as others since hearing loss varies by amount of decibel loss and frequency range, and the time when we were first exposed to it.

Each of us look at hearing loss or what hearing we have left differently. I look to the positive with what I have left and cherish it for one day it may disappear. But technology and science certainly help keep that hope alive to hear through cochlear implant and perhaps someday soon the restoration of nerve deafness using adult stem cells. Regardless, the point is that I am happy that I was given this opportunity on Earth to be able to hear even when the ravages of the German Measles or Rubella tried to steal all of my hearing away while I was still in my mother's womb. Yet, I prevailed. As a hard of hearing person who is deaf, I try and remember to thank God for my good health and hearing.

Certainly my perspectives are completely different from those who never experienced what sound is like and certainly wouldn't care for it finding it of no importance. Maybe go so far as calling sound as "under-rated." I understand that but just because you may not find value in hearing sound does not mean everybody will agree with you. Lacking the experience or the senses does not make a person any less of a person than a healthy hearing person. We're all different yet equal. Each of us has our own strengths and weaknesses.

But we are in an exciting time when technology continues to help us access a world that was at one time primarily reserved for hearing people only. And there are ways we can enjoy sound or music without the need to hear it through our ears. Sound gets to be appreciated here yet sometimes it is misunderstood by those who don't value it in the first place. There are those who appreciate in hearing sound and those who appreciate the total absence of sound. We value those things differently. One isn't necessarily better than the other. Just that our perspectives and experiences translate it into a value judgement.