I was born deaf. My mom figured it out when I was a toddler by devising a little experiment. First she locked in my attention. Next she told me to do something. Then she covered her mouth and said something else. As long as I could see her lips moving, I responded to her instructions. She took me to the doctor and, voila, diagnosis confirmed her suspicions. I was 80% deaf in one ear and 50% in the other. The doctor put tubes in my ears and all was again right with the world.

Aside from the annoying necessity of wearing earplugs when I swam, I remember little of having the tubes in my ears, or even when they were removed. My mom remembers it differently.

At the end of my senior year of high school, my youth pastor asked the parents of the seniors to write letters about their children to be read aloud at a special banquet. My mom wrote hers as a prayer to God. In it she shared, “When she had a hearing problem and required tubes in her ears I was sure that you were testing my strength. But in reality, she would now hear sounds never before heard….” She may never know the real truth of that statement.

We live in a time that panders to our senses, imploring us to dive in head first and drown in our abilities to smell, see, touch, taste, and hear. Inundated with the constant barrage on our senses, we lose our appreciation of them. Like my graphic designer counterpart often warns: “If everything is bold, then nothing is bold.”

Is your world all in bold? Or do you take the time to notice the subtle nuances around you?

Because my mom dared to notice the subtle nuances in her life, my world is alive with sounds. I love nothing more than to close my eyes and take in the song of my surroundings, zeroing in on one piece and then another, all the while appreciating the whole. There is no silence here. Even the quiet rings in my ears. Listening brings me peace, a stillness in my soul. Whether I realized it or not at the time, those tubes changed my life.

Take a minute today to hone in on one of your senses. Enjoy it. Marvel in it. Let the wonder of it change your point of view. Let it change you. I dare you.