I have been watching birds and generally appreciating nature ever since I was a little boy. Growing up in urban northwest London and being into nature wasn’t the done thing in those days. I was a bit of an oddity, but I revelled in watching the birds that lived in my neighbourhood. This was despite the ribbing that I received from other kids and despite being told that I needed to go to the countryside to be around nature. It was my release, my sanctuary. However, I also had a problem. As a toddler I contracted a bad case of mumps. So bad that it left me profoundly deaf in my left ear as my aural nerve was irreparably damaged. In effect, I have lived my entire life listening to the world through one ear. That ear, my right ear, had developed to do the work of one and a half ears. Its sharpened abilities allowed me to live an outwardly near normal life. I could hear birds and, whilst in daily life, I was aware of the city hubbub. I could hear people and could enjoy music. I was even able to become a DJ!
There was a flipside though. If you spoke to me on my left side in a low tone without me realising, I wouldn’t hear you. It would make me appear as if I was ignoring people. Rude almost. Put me in a crowded environment then I would fall silent and avoid conversations because I could not hear the people next to me. Listening to music through headphones was problematic because I couldn’t appreciate stereo surround sound. I heard music in mono. Meanwhile, out in the field particularly in woods, although I could hear the birds I often could not exactly pinpoint where they were calling from. But I lived with all this thinking that there was no resolution to my hearing loss problem. It wasn’t until very recently that I tried wearing hearing aids to see if they could help me. Previously, I had thought that I was beyond help. I also held a stigma towards hearing aids. They were for old people, no?
Hearing loss and enjoying nature are two things that would not seem to go together well. We all take hearing and seeing nature almost for granted. After all, it is what nature’s about: to be heard and seen. Of course, it is possible to experience the natural world as a blind person just as it is for someone who is totally deaf. In those instances, your remaining senses usually become heightened enabling you to experience life in a different way to most. Although not profoundly deaf or blind, many of us suffer from hearing loss, whether we admit it or not. The stats speak for themselves. One in three of us have hearing loss – often without even realising. Indeed, it is estimated that three million of us are unaware that we have a hearing issue. Although hearing loss is often associated with people over the age of 50 it also affects people much younger, whether it be through disease as in my case, through to constant exposure to loud noise. One of the first signs of hearing loss is not being able to hear the birds. It starts when you think that there are less birds around and, when you get older, birds with calls at the higher end of the sound spectrum like Goldcrests become inaudible
Wearing hearing aids, or ear binoculars as I now call them, has opened up a whole new and unexpected world for me. I now hear all the birds louder and clearer. Plus, I have become much better at pinpointing where sound is coming from. They have enhanced my life. My message is simple: if you have bad eyes you’d rush to the opticians. Well, your ears are just as important. Get them checked. Live your life to the full and hear as much of nature as you can when you are out. There is no stigma attached to looking after your ears. Love your ears!
#LoveYourEars
I am an Ambassador for Hidden Hearing.
Visit Hidden Hearing’s website for more information about their #LoveYourEars campaign
David Lindo
December 2024
