MyLuckyEars is a platform I created to share my art related to hearing loss. It’s a collection of people’s stories and experiences expressed through different mixed media mediums. It started almost as therapy. As a way to process so many feelings I had bottled up inside of me that I didn’t even quite know they existed.
MyLuckyEars is honoring all the years and the ears on a hearing loss journey. It’s putting wings on the ears so they can be liberated. It’s giving a visibility to an invisible disability. It’s saying:
Everything I’ve been through with my hearing loss and my son’s deafness have set me on a road of a deeply passionate desire to learn all things related to our hearing. I love to share other people’s experiences with their own hearing loss in a way of honoring who they truly are. I want to connect with adults and children who are deaf, or hard of hearing.
I have had so many phases of hearing that I can say I’ve experienced the difference between 100% natural hearing, hearing with only one ear, or hearing with a hearing aid or a BAHA. I’ve felt what it’s like to have your hearing restored for a few minutes, but then finding out that those few minutes are really all you’re going to get. I have gone through one of the most difficult decisions of my life: choosing between allowing my son to get a Cochlear Implant or not. I have felt denial, sadness, hope, courage and strength. I have begged and cried for help and thanked the ones who crossed my path and gave me support. At the same time, I felt good when my experiences were able to help the lives of others who were going through similar journeys.
My hearing loss doesn’t define me, but it is a part of me; even more so, it empowers me. The path I’ve taken has been nothing short of a novel and I love every year of it, every ear of it. These are MyLuckyEars.