Sunday 11th December 2016
One of the things that has helped me write this blog everyday is the fact I listen, listen to things that I hear around me, listen to what other people say, listen to the radio. But what happens if you don’t have the ability to listen!
We are doing this thing at church at the minute called ’12 days of Christmas kindness’. Personally I think kindness is something we should all do naturally everyday. But for this 12 days we do something a bit extra. It means we get to think about others more and do something to bless them.
I am part of a women’s life group, it’s where some women from our church meet up weekly to chat and someone gives us a thought for the day. We have a lady in our group who is deaf. I have never had a problem talking to her – in fact I love talking to her because she is an amazing lady. She has taught me a little bit of sign language. I can’t have a conversation in sign language but I know a few words.
We thought it would be lovely to do something for the deaf during our 12 days of Christmas kindness. Ruth, the lady in our group, said that there is a deaf church who meet up once a month.
We decided that we would like to provide a buffet afterwards to bless them.
It was amazing – it was like 2 different cultures, languages joined together. I felt like I was entering into their world.
I managed to sign my name and sign a few words but that was about it. However there was no language barrier at all – we all mingled and communicated really well.
I did feel I had to really concentrate and give the person I was speaking to my undivided attention. This was great because there was no barriers like mobile phones or music in the back ground – it was just us, and how often does that happen these days.
I spoke to this girl and asked her what it was like. Thinking she would say I’d like to hear. She said she likes her silent world. She also said that she could see something happen in the distance that no one would hear but she can hear it in her head. It’s like her mind would make it up.
The whole experience was so fascinating I loved it.
I think sometimes when people are hard of hearing, funny looking, overweight, handicapped, not as academic or just different, we sometimes can avoid them because we don’t know how we should communicate. But one thing I have learnt today is they are not that different after all. They are just like the rest of us but living life in a bit of a different way and it is our fear that keeps us away.
After all I like to communicate in pictures and you don’t get much different than that.
