The noises only I could hear

Rainforest with gurgling stream

I have an amazing capacity (not wishing to boast or anything) for creating mountains out of molehills. A lifelong gift that has not abated with the passage of time. I question, however, when there’s enough pain and sorrow in the Middle East, whether my molehills-to-mountains track record deserves air-time.

Judge for yourself.

Recently, around 10 PM, I’d already put myself to bed. Long day. Suddenly, I began hearing what sounded like running water, an owl hooting, and birds chirping, all in my very own quiet bedroom. Was I nuts? (There are some who would happily agree with that assessment.) Ms. Kind Of Scared But I’ll Be Brave got out of bed and walked through the kitchen to my back door. Opened, stuck my puzzled head outside, and heard… nothing. Did a quick walk-through of the rest of the house and heard….nothing

My bedroom seemed to be ground zero for the weird noise follies. Placed an inquiring ear to several bedroom walls, and heard….guess what, nothing. Ungrounded in any reality I could explain, the cornucopia of nature sounds was still present.

Well, just great! Super! (Keep breathing, Jan.) As a self-identified princess-and-the-pea sufferer, I desperately tried NOT to hear what I was clearly hearing. Maybe a very late-night call to my nearby neighbor, to say, to say…..to say what, exactly?

Suddenly, I remembered my stash of rarely-used, but effective silicone ear plugs. Such a relief! Found, applied, but oh….. stop, stop! Was I at risk of physical harm due to my “I-am-staying-put-tonight despite whatever the hell this is?”

“Come on universe, help me out! No, no, I take that back. Just forget it! I’m too tired. Haven’t I been a (mostly) good girl in this life? Doesn’t that count for something? Just let me go to sleep, safely. Deal?”

Morning has broken and I’m still around! Removed my savior ear plugs, knowing, just knowing, those baffling sounds would be gone.

They weren’t. Water softly gurgling, birds chirping….oh, geez!

I reached out to a level-headed neighborhood friend for reality testing. She kindly came down the hill to oblige my….whatever the heck this whole thing was.

First listening stop, my (very quiet) living room. A quick trip through my (also very quiet) kitchen. Now, my bedroom. We entered, and I, gingerly, asked if she heard IT, you know, those running water noises and bird calls. She listened intently, finally saying, “No.”

Oh, super great! (I am nuts!) She did, however, notice some difficult-to-discern sounds emanating from Alexa, my AI (artificial intelligence) unit. I’d pushed it against a wall, on the floor, so my new knee would have one less thing to trip over (with the exception of my own two feet, but that’s another story.)

I leaned down to better hear Alexa, realizing with a jolt, we’d hit pay-dirt! Those aberrant nature sounds were the Alexa unit’s Rainforest soundtrack. Yep, running water accompanied by bird and owl sounds. Bingo! Oh, major bingo! We laughed, me, pretty damn hysterically. I wasn’t nuts! I wasn’t!

My AI device likely heard something it interpreted as a request for “Rainforest” sounds, and complied. All night long. The AI unit was far enough removed from my sight line that I never even considered its possible contribution to the weirdness of “you’re hearing WHAT exactly, Jan?”

In our shared moment of hilarity, I felt such a weight lift. I can’t even begin to tell you. There was room enough for us to experience an unexpected gift of merriment, even amidst our Mideast sadness. Hey universe, help me remember this. Please?