The Decision to Unplug

Welcome to my first blog post as a new self-published children’s book author. Even just saying that makes me think “What?”  You see, I’ve never thought of myself as a writer, let alone a book author. This all began when my first grandchild was born with a hearing loss and I wanted a book for her to see herself in, a mirror of sorts.  I hadn’t seen other babies wearing hearing aids ever, it was foreign to me. I had seen little ones with glasses but not hearing aids. So, when Kena got a hearing aid at 3.5 months, they looked so big in her ear and yet tiny when you held them in your hand or tried to get them in her little ear. For the most part, I remember her leaving it alone until she was about 6 or so months old and she’d purposely look at me and grab it with her hand and put it straight into her mouth!  Little stinker knew that something was different going on in that ear. It always amazed me that when she was really tired or sick of people she’d pull her hearing aids out for you to take. She needed to unplug from her surroundings, all the sounds were just too much. Sometimes that sounds kind of good, unplugging from all of the noises that are in the world. There are so many unsettling events on the evening news: scary stories of abductions, natural disasters killing innocent people, car accidents changing people’s lives in an instant, etc.  I choose to listen to all of these but I won’t soon forget the beautiful sound of my granddaughter singing a Moana song or laughing hysterically over playing balloon ball with us! Those are the sounds I’d like everyone to be able to hear and never forget there is love and laughter amongst all of the other awful sounds in this world.

Peace and love,

Becky