大象传媒

Good Morning.聽 I first noticed I had a hearing problem about twelve years ago in the noisy atmosphere of a wedding reception when I discovered I couldn鈥檛 hear a word the person on my felt was saying unless I turned my head round and used my right ear- not easy when you鈥檙e eating..

So off I go to get my hearing checked and yes they confirmed there had been a certain deterioration in my left ear.聽 And I finished up with a hearing aid.. Maybe I was lucky in that I adjusted quite quickly to a different quality of sound, for I know some people do find that difficult.

Nevertheless, many people have said to me that they have a hearing aid but never use it- and sometimes I come across a sort of half apology from someone who does use. Personally I鈥檝e never felt the need to apologise or explain. I鈥檝e been wearing glasses for the best part of sixty years; without them my life would be very severely restricted and my approach to the hearing aid is much the same.

But I am also conscious that whether we have a hearing difficulty or whether our hearing is perfectly OK, there can still be communication problems for many of us. Even though we may well hear every word, we can fail to listen. Sometimes we don鈥檛 hear those things we really don鈥檛 want to hear and on the other had we can and frequently do hear only what we want to. Sometimes we listen, simply in order to pick the weak points in what the other person鈥檚 saying and once we find one, we鈥檙e in like a shot interrupting to try to get the better of the argument. For at the end of the day talking comes much easier to most of us than listening.

We pray in words based on those of St James: 鈥淗elp us Lord to be quick to listen and slow to speak鈥澛犅� Amen