After getting hearing aids a few weeks ago, I was looking forward to the sounds of Christmas – recorded carols resounding throughout the house as I cooked and John decorated. I wanted to hear the organ and congregational singing at church in a clearer dimension. What I got was a good laugh at myself.

COVID numbers went up in Asheville, so our church requested that everyone wear masks again. It was PAINFUL! The hearing aids protested at sharing ear space with the mask. Whipping the cheap glasses on and off the same area rubbed my ear raw. I hid in the balcony for several weeks to avoid wearing a mask. The organist and recording techs up there were also bare-faced. It was a happy place until it was decreed that the choir would be in that space and required to be masked.

I decided not to go to church on Christmas Day. That would have caused consternation in the family, so I searched for another solution. Giving up either seeing or hearing was the answer. I left the hearing aids in their charger and went to church.

After the service, I sat outside the sanctuary waiting while John and David rehearsed with the choir. Pastor Gillespie, the one who preached that day, sat down and chatted for a minute. He lost me when he changed the subject. I heard him say, “How are you doing with the Kyries?”

The Kyrie (pronounced keer-ree-aye) is a part of liturgical worship – Lord have mercy. Christ have mercy. Lord have mercy. I didn’t think he knew I had been a church organist and would know the Kyrie. He must have seen the confusion on my face. He asked the question again, this time flapping his hands near his ears. Finally I realized he must be asking, “How are you doing with the hearing aids?”