Hearing a Whale

"Praise does wonders for our sense of hearing." -Arnold H. Glasow

We have been told over and over again by health professionals and our mothers, never to use a cotton swab to clean your ears. The ear wax itself helps protect the lining of our ear canal, and excessive build-up can lead to blockage, or hearing loss as the result of poor ear hygiene.

What if you were a Blue Whale, without any ability to maintain good ear hygiene?

Yes, whales have ears and yes, whales experience wax build-up in their ears. So much that scientists at the Santa Barbara Museum of Natural History collected that wax from inside the skull of the dead whale back in 2007 and preserved it. The column of wax was nearly a foot long. Those same people studied the contents of that ear wax and it revealed quite a bit.

If you think about it, a whale traversing the oceans collects samples of the water quality and what is in it over those many years of its life. Each layer found within that ear wax correspond to six months of the whale's life and if you examine the chemical compounds found in those layers, you will figure out what and when the whale was exposed to certain pollutants.

As I read the story, it became more apparent to me just how many pollutants we as humans take in each day. The pollutants I am referring to are of the verbal kind; negative words, comments and jabs at our life. We are subjected to a constant barrage of bad news, complaints and generally destructive commentary. As adults, we have bulit up a certain amount of ear wax to shield us.

But what about young children?

The words we say to children that fill there minds with self-defeating teachings. Words such as, "you will never" or "why can't you be better" and many worse things that harm their formative years. These pollutants collect in our minds and collect over the years as we grow older. The crud builds up in our ears and eventually cause problems of balance and the ability to hear what is good.

It can be much more difficult to clean those many years of harsh words from our minds then it is to simply clean the wax from our ears. But it can be done if you truly want. It begins by speaking great words to yourself, by believing in oneself and knowing each of us have place and purpose in life. Greatness exists within and you have to believe it first before anyone else will.

Clean the ear wax from your life that has been holding you back. Hear the great things that your life can be and listen more clearly.

Stay inspired my friends!