Hope is hearing the melody of the future. Faith is to dance to it. ~R. Alves

...(ok, so it was only 9pm, but it felt much later), in the silence of my room (my house is not always very quiet, despite the impression I seem to give) where I was wasting valuable seconds weighing the lesser of two evils (Northern Renaissance Art and Ernest Hemingway--my life for the next month), I heard an odd sound that I hadn't heard since my early days here living at Badger Hill: the sound of church bells.

Now, maybe they do this in the states as well, I can't remember; but here in the UK when church bells ring it's a pretty random sound. No little sweet melody, just an all-out gong party. At first, I found it rather annoying, my delicate ears craving some semblance of order in the notes. But now I rather enjoy it. I can't mistake the chaotic ringing of the church bells with any other ringing (such as the ice cream truck!).

And, in its own way, the ringing is quite soothing--like someone giving you a massage by pounding their knuckles in your back. Then again, it is much nicer to hear the church bells ring from a couple of miles away than when you're trying to sleep and the church is only a stone's throw away (such as at Badger Hill).

Hmmm...could there possibly be a message here? Is there a moral to this story? Could I have learned a small lesson that that which seems dysfuntional and abrasive at a close perspective, may in fact be a luring, soothing beautiful sound from a far distance? And that which seemed once merely cacophony is now a glorious symphony once I listen with eager, willing, experienced ears?

Oh, no; there couldn't be anything deep about that!

Can you hear the bells a-ringing
far, far away?
Can you hear the voices singing
far, far away?
I know that one day soon the song will rise,
you'll hear it with the sleep still in your eyes.
~FIF