I never wear ear buds.
I don’t even own a pair.
I don’t think I would like the feel of them in my ears.
More than that, I don’t want to miss the sounds all around me.

When I walk each morning, I carry my phone with me.
I pull out the pop socket and get a good grip, so it can record my steps.
I turn on a Bible study podcast that I listen to each morning.
I follow that with a short podcast of daily news.

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I met a friend for breakfast.
The restaurant has beautiful canvas photographs on the walls.
Many of the bucolic scenes are from local farms.
Some of the photographs are close-up pictures of animals.

As I put my things into the booth, my friend went to get her coffee.
I looked up at the canvas picture above me.
It was my son’s dog!
The photograph was not actually his dog, but it might as well have been.

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My husband carried the book into the kitchen.
I forgot I had this, he said, opening it on the kitchen island.
It was a book with the name of the company he worked with for forty years on the cover.
It was a book that was published when the company changed its name twenty-two years ago.

Look at this, he said.
He showed me a page with very neat penmanship in the margin.
It was written by his father.
His father had worked at the same company many years ago.

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We had a dead bat in our basement.
It has happened before.
It happened many years ago in the house we lived in before our current home.
I thought it was a one time thing.

I remember that winter morning.
I woke up and got dressed before the children were awake.
The house was very cold.
Something was wrong.

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I love cold weather.
People go down to Florida to get away from the cold; I embrace it.
I love to walk in the cold.
I always feel more alive.

I have my walking coat that I have had for years.
The zipper pull actually broke off last year.
I had it replaced at the dry cleaners.
I could not bear to replace that coat, since I love it like a worn pair of jeans.

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Do you remember the old refrigerator boxes?
Those boxes provided hours of play for my children.
Those boxes became all the things their imagination could create.
Those boxes seem to be a thing of the past.

Appliances still come in boxes.
Stores sometimes offer lower prices for appliances which are out of the box.
However, those that are in the box come into your home already unpacked.
The boxes remain on the delivery truck.

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I have been struggling with a cold for the past week.
I do not have much of a voice when I speak.
Sadly, I am not able to sing.
It has been a week of much needed rest.

My two-year-old granddaughter was here for the weekend.
What a joy it is to have my grandchildren here.
I use the word, joy, when I describe my family.
It is not cliche.

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This Whisper was originally published on February 23, 2016.
I am republishing it because a sweet picture of a little boy and his sister reminded me.
I use the precious picture with permission.
May there be more chivalrous protectors.

I had an early morning appointment and I needed to silence my cell phone.
As I was getting ready to leave, I put my purse and my coat in my lap.
I could feel my phone vibrating.
I wondered whether it was a call, a text, or a reminder.

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Every so often, I clean the outside of my kitchen cabinets with Murphy’s Oil Soap.
I love the smell.
I love how clean the cabinet doors look.
I love the way the wood shines.

I decided to wipe the front of all my cabinets early in the morning.
I got out my bucket and put just a bit of Murphy’s Oil Soap in the bottom.
I put warm water in the bucket, filling it only half way.
I got an old towel from the rag bag.

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You could feel the excitement in the air.
It was palpable.
We had prepared for this day for months.
Six of us had prayed, and planned, and waited.

It was the first day of women’s Bible study at church.
It was the first day that a homeschool co-op was going to be joining us.
While the children were in their classrooms, the moms were studying God’s Word together.
It was time to meet these women for whom we had been praying.

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