The most pleasing sounds

I read somewhere once that the most pleasing sound to a person is their name. I don’t remember the reasoning, but I suspect it has something to do with being acknowledged, remembered…known. Makes sense, so I do make an effort to learn how to say people’s names properly and to remember them. Granted, it takes a lot more effort these days than when I was younger, but definitely worth it to see people smile upon hearing their name called.

Personally, I am partial to the sound of babies laughing. It is such a purely joyful sound. It never fails to make me smile. I suspect it also makes a lot of other people smile given the number of videos of babies laughing I’ve seen over the years.

The sounds of certain instruments can make me weep: the piccolo,the flute, the violin. A well-played piano or guitar. It’s quite possible my husband playing the classical guitar for me ensured I’d say yes when he asked me to marry him many moons ago. Now that illness has made it impossible for him to play, I am ever more grateful for the many hours my son sat with him as a teenager, and learned to play the numerous pieces his dad had played for us over the years. Sometimes when he visits, he plays them for me. Last year, when traveling with him and his girlfriend, I got to hear him play new music he’d learned so that he could accompany her. My heart nearly burst with joy when his voice joined with hers in harmony.

I also love the myriad sounds of silence: the silence in the kitchen right now as I type these words. The sounds of morning, sporadic and muffled beyond my window, as the day is just beginning. The silence of a summer night when the cacophony of insect sounds is like a symphony that lulls me to sleep. The silence after a heavy snowfall when the world is so very still. The silence of some mountains I’ve climbed, where nothing can be heard except the wind.