Muffled voices from the kitchen, a door, a laugh down the hall. You’ll miss the sound of a full house someday.

A house with people in it makes a particular noise, and that noise is unremarkable while you are inside it. A door, a laugh from another room, two people talking about nothing in the kitchen. It sounds like interruption now. Later it sounds like the years when everyone was still under one roof, and by then it is a sound you can only remember.

There is nothing to do here except listen once. Stop in the hallway for a moment tonight and take in what the house sounds like with everyone home. You will not need a special reason to be glad you did.