Six years ago I moved from town to the 5-acre, farm-house property. It’s located a half-mile up a dirt road that dead-ends a few properties past mine. While it’s only seven-plus miles, or a fifteen minute drive to town, it often feels like I’m living in the middle of nowhere.
Today – six years later – it feels really quiet.
But I remember moving here in mid-May 2010 and saying to myself, “It’s really noisy out here.”
After living in town for three years, I was suddenly exposed to birds chirping like I had never heard.
I was used to hearing cars drive by on my generally quiet residential street. I’d hear my neighbor’s diesel truck starting up. I would hear the voices of children playing. I didn’t routinely hear nature.
After moving, there were no cars or trucks or human voices.
Nature abhors a vacuum. The normal noises I was used to hearing were gone. My brain and ears were suddenly filled with sounds that previously couldn’t penetrate.
A flood of new sounds rushed in to fill the vacuum. I heard dozens of species of birds chirping. I heard magpies screeching. It was really noisy where I now lived.
Today – six years later – I have to actively listen for the birds. I normally only hear silence. It’s no longer noisy where I live.