The Joy of Human Kindness

Singer/Songwriter Miranda Betts

I am so excited. One of the hardest things since developing Hyperacusis has been that I am unable to take part or listen to live music. 

After a lifetime of living through music, this is sometimes hard to swallow, though I am building ways back to a musical life. 

It's not so much  the performance that is a problem but the audience response ... clapping, laughing, or people tapping feet on the floor  ... all these can set my hyperacusis raging, which renders me with sound distortion for days, to the point where I can not even tolerate my own voice,

Sometimes, when I have had the courage, I ask friends if they will sing for me. It feels like a really odd request because we just don't ask our friends to sit and sing for us. I'm not sure why because frankly, it's a marvellous idea. As children, my Mother would sing for us, my Grandmother sang for us. I would sing for them ... we were a singing house.

And then last week, I told my dear friend Miranda Betts, a Singer/Songwriter who pens the most beautiful songs, how awkward I felt asking and she very kindly offered to pop round and sing for me. And tomorrow lunchtime is the day that she is coming.

I wonder if I might be able to sing with her. Oh my days, the very thought of hearing Miranda sing and being able to join in, is making every cell of my body shine.

Such joy in human kindness. Thankyou Miranda.