January 16: Our Ears, Angels and Pigs, Listening

I often wonder if young children can see and hear things that adults can't see or hear.  My daughter, when she was a baby, would lie in her crib and babble and laugh for half an hour sometimes.  It was like she was having a conversation with someone, telling jokes, sharing secrets.  My wife and I used to say that she was visiting with Grandma C_____, my wife's mother who passed away more than ten years before our daughter was born.

When Fern tells to her parents about Wilbur and Charlotte and the other animals in the barn, Mrs. Arable wants to speak to a doctor about Fern.  After all, Fern is talking to animals, and the animals are talking back to her.  Mr. Arable isn't quite as skeptical:

Mr. Arable grinned.  "Maybe our ears aren't as sharp as Fern's," he said.

I really follow Mr. Arable's logic.  I think kids can communicate with angels and pigs, and I think, somehow, angels and pigs communicate right back.  I think we all used to see and hear ghosts dancing, spiders singing, and grass whispering when we were young.  It's just that we got old and stopped listening.

Perhaps the world would be a better place if we all listened like children.  Maybe, then, we would hear the oceans crying when we drilled for oil.  Or a cherub singing a lullaby at an infant's crib.  Maybe we would see loved ones who've passed away sitting down at the dinner table with us.  Or playing hide-and-go-seek on the playground.

The world needs more people who listen for singing angels and talking pigs.

And Saint Marty hopes he's one of them.  Not an angel or pig.  One of the listeners.  Yeah, a listener who isn't afraid to give you a piece of his mind.

Do you see an angel in this photograph?