Sounds by Susan L.

  I have a favorite word: susurration. It means the sound when the wind blows. It makes the intangible tangible. It makes the invisible present. It even sounds like the wind blowing though grass and leaves when it's read slowly out loud. It flows off the tongue.
  As I was sitting reading by the living room window last night, the aquarium pump and a big fan were humming away in the background. The combined pulse created music; heavy metal, rock band kind of music that was way off in the distance. I thought for a moment it was a radio playing next door because I could hear repetitive vocals but couldn't make sense of the words. It was kind of eerie.
  No I'm not going crazy. I checked it out. When the fan was turned off, the illusion of music stopped. Susurration, the air moving through fan and bubble making air stone created a subtle song.
  I often hear music in the mechanized hum of machines. They have a musicality, a rhythm in the constant steady purr of motor and gears. When I worked in a factory years ago, it helped pass the time while packing endless packages of cough drops.
  Later last night as I was almost asleep, a strange sound had me awake and alert in an instant. Something wasn't quite right. I listened. Was it the spare sump pump running? No. Please, no! Getting up and going into the kitchen, the fridge motor stopped. So did the strange sound. Relieved, I went back to bed.
  Our subconscious does an amazing job at filtering out the everyday noises that surround us. Sometimes I like to sit utterly still and listen. The whole world breathes.
  "I wait for the Lord, my soul waits, and in His word I do hope." Ps 130:5