interesting what you learn

I have been staying in a friend's house while guests are in mine. I have only one bedroom while part of my house is being developed.

I thought it would be easy, living across the road. I would paint well, and study well. There would be no distractions. The light is better for painting, and the paints could stay set up in the large and airy room.

I haven't studied at all, and I have had to be really disciplined to paint. I am learning a few things about me, instead! I think I have worked out what the problem is.

Over there, across the road, I have no music. I am rattling around in a big house on three levels, not having had any luck with making the television go, with no computer, and with no music.

The birds sing all night here, but from the "house across the road" I don't hear them. I miss them, and I miss the church bells. I am closer to the bells but I am sleeping in a room built against the rock face and there is no sound except from the road.

I don't miss the telly at all, that is study for me, not relaxation. TV has never been my thing. I am missing my music terribly. In some ways it supports a theory I have always held, that hearing might be more important than sight.

I love being able to see, and when I get new glasses it is always a delight to be able to see that little bit better than the day before. But could I live in a world without sound? That would take a huge amount of adjustment.

Now it is time to leave the computer and look at this world with new eyes, and enjoy the sounds around me. Today while my guests are in Rome I am back in my own house, and I have music. Or I will have, soon. For now I am happy just to listen to the bird-song, knowing that at any time I choose I can play a CD or the piano, and have other music...