Not long ago, I’ve been diagnosed with progressing hearing loss, beyond what is normal to expect with the growing number of years in my life. One can creativly compensate for some loss, but at a certain point, it was time to get a quality hearing aid fitted. This amazing technical device has been great for me, but it required a steep learning curve how to handle it in the many different situations of every day.

What bothers me now is, that we humans have the luxury of voice and sound, nuanced to express ourselves and to be heard. But would we use it to our advantage? It seems the never-ending story is the missed marks, twisted words, the wrong expression, inability to understand each other. Being “tone-deaf” has become the big divider, and not just simple bad hearing.

The act of listening turns out to be a rare and precious trait, which needs to be practiced. I recall countless hours of reading bed stories to my daughters when they were young, and. we continued this tradition for the past 10+ years to my granddaughters. It has made them good listeners, curious and sparked the logical consequence, good readers, too.

5-8 The Art of Listening

16.5″ x 40″
Cotton, hand dyed and -scraped printed with fiber reactive dyes, discharge screen print, machine quilted
Cotton and polyester threads.