Thanksgiving Day 19: The gift of being heard

There is so much noise in this world: TV, radio, iPod, Muzak, electronic voices on the phone and at traffic lights, in airplanes and elevators. GPS navigators. Twitters and tweets and IMs and txt msgs. Facebook and LinkedIn and Youtube.

And good old-fashioned verbal chatter insists on filling up any nooks and crannies not already invaded by the electronic armada. I am guilty of it myself far too frequently, as I blather on about what, exactly, at the TH ...

Sometimes there is no getting away from sounds. There is increasingly little opportunity in this age of sensory overload simply to be silent and to ponder.

Speech and information are gifts that should not be taken for granted and squandered frivolously. And so when I am blessed enough to have people I cherish tell me that they don't need me to talk if I don't want to, that they can hear me without having to hear my words, I find this gift more to be appreciated than a legion of eloquent speeches, more to be treasured than pearls.