Growing older has been an odd development (although a good one, considering the alternative). So many things I thought were game changers – positions firmly held, opinions screamed from the mountaintops…well, it turns out some of them have shifted.

Which is really weird sometimes.

Take silence.  Silence used to freak me out.  I don’t mean freak me out like it was uncomfortable so I’d turn on some music.  It was more like freak me out so thoughts ran furiously on hamster wheels in my brain, every single sound in the house rang out like gongs, and I’d startle so easily I pulled muscles jumping sideways.

I guess you could say the quiet made me a bit skittish.

Yet here I am, the proud owner of a pair of noise canceling headphones.  And it wasn’t even by chance – I actually asked for these as a birthday present.  I actively pursued the silence.  This may be a sign of End Times.

All I know is this: here I am in 2016, and sometimes I crave the quiet.  Unfortunately, sometimes I still have the hamster wheel brain, too, which is where the beauty of the headphones comes in.

I pop those babies on, flip the switch, and the noise around me dampens.  Shrieking kids become less shrieky, construction noises become less grating, and lunatic dog barking becomes a distant roar.  It usually even slows the hamster wheels enough for the thoughts to present themselves in a civilized manner.

Bless you, technology gods…

My post as part of Colline’s Gratitude Project.