I am in a time of noticing, really paying attention to, the world around me. There are so many marvelous things in my world, and I’m talking about the kind of things that seem so small and mundane, just the sounds of our house and how it moves and breathes and just is, well, I am waking up to these things and they fill me with wonder.
Your house, or wherever you live, pulsates with life. The clock here, high up on the wall in my studio, ticks and tocks so loudly you can hear it from 2 rooms away. I had a moment of clarity today when I realized that it was one of the most wonderful things in the house. My friend Noni hung it for me when I moved back in here after the fire. It’s a round clock, weathered looking, with a rooster in the middle of it. You can see the second hand move with a kind of a jolt from one second to the next, and it is loud. I sat here with my mouth open, my jaw relaxed, feeling my heart beat in rhythm with the tick-tock, tick-tock, and my whole body just sighed, I was filled with a kind of peace, and ease. It was a cheap thrift store clock. Not, actually, the kind you should buy if you actually want one that keeps accurate time. It always runs slow and then slower. Or sometimes fast and then faster. And because Noni put it up so high, and it needs to be exactly there, I can never reset the time because I have iffy feet and I’m not safe to get up on a ladder. It really gets wonky when Daylight Savings Time comes and goes because then it is an hour in the wrong direction, either way, with the added bonus of it running fast or slow. The time is wildly off at all times but I love this clock, love it’s presence in my studio, love the sound it makes. It keeps me company, it makes me feel less alone, and sometimes, when I am anxious in the night and can’t sleep, just in the next room, I breathe along with the ticking and tocking of the clock. It helps.
Then there are my beloved windchimes. I have collected them for many years, all sorts of windchimes, really good ones with long chimes that sound like deep, resonant temple bells, or all kinds of bells. They are all shapes and sizes. There are windchimes all across my front porch and all along one wall of my deck, opposite sides of the house, so wherever you are you can hear the most beautiful music. It is a breezy day just now and the chimes are chiming, the clock is ticking, and little Molly has just jumped down from my lap to get on the bed and fluffly blanket just beside me, to chew her chew stick, a kind I got from my vet that she loves and has good enzymes and things for her teeth. Molly is chewing and the windchimes are chiming, and the clock is ticking, and then there’s the refrigerator.
I have no idea why it makes the sounds it does, it just kind of revs up like a crazy little motor, kind of soft and muffled, and it only makes this indescribable sound for a few seconds and then you might not hear it again for hours, but it is always there, a presence, and it sounds especially loud in the middle of the night when the house is so dark and quiet, well no, the house is never absolutely quiet, it has a life of it’s own, but you know what I mean, when most everything is so still and silent and it is so dark it can be startling to hear it’s revving up.
Two of my favorite sounds, which I find really comforting, are when either the dishwasher or washer/dryer are running. They make noisy, happy, sounds of a house being lived in and life going on and you know things are getting cleaned, chores done, just while you sit in your chair.
People always talk about how hard it is to live alone, I have said it myself, surely it can get lonely, but your house can keep you company if you just get quiet and listen. I don’t believe there are “inanimate” objects in a house. Everything is alive and lively. Tell me, what are the things in your house that you love? I’d love to know.
What a fabulous blog! Such a meditation! It should be “published” somewhere, honestly Maitri!
I too have windchimes – glorious big melodious ones out our bedroom window, and glass tinkle tinkle ones from my daughter alana hanging on rose cottage in the back yard, and a few wooden ones that go knockety-knockety… our refrig does it’s thing too, whirs for a minute then goes still again; we don’t have a dishwasher, but when our heat or AC goes on (depending on the season) it makes a lovely windy noise, not too loud, rather comforting… let’s see, the bed sometimes rattles when we turn over; the leather love seat sighs a bit when we squish down on it (and the couch too), setting the table makes a little clatter, etc etc. I love thinking about the sounds of our old home, which is exactly 71 years old (it was built the year my husband was born). Sometimes at night when it’s really windy or raining hard, i can hear the trees sway and the leaves rustle, and definitely the rain on the windows… and the little clickety clickety of my fingers on my computer keyboard, let’s not forget that!!!
And the ping from my phone when I get a text.
And Georgie meowing, in the mudroom outside the kitchen door, when he thinks it is WAY past his mealtime!
xo ka
Thank you sweet Ka, and I loved reading yours! And OH! When I read yours I went, “OH DARN!” because one of the the things I meant to put in this post was the whooshing sound of the heat or air coming on. Something so soothing about the sound. And YES the clickety clickety of my fingers typing! And oh… the sound of rain, and thunderstorms, I love. (NOT hurricanes though! I can’t believe we both lived through one this year!) I tell you though something made me nostalgic, about the rain. When we moved to Roanoke, VA, before Kevin built our house in the mountains in Callaway, we lived in a 90 year old farmhouse with a tin roof and rain on a tin roof is one of the most heavenly sounds ever. Sigh… I wish we could get together and write like we used to honey. I miss that terribly.
I love you honey, so much…
Hugs,
M. xoxox