Sometimes I think I’ve just about heard it all….then I hear something that makes me realize there will always be more amazing things to hear on this planet!!! One of America’s illustrious states just passed a law, after a new development was built on previous farmland, next to currently operating farms. The new law puts farmers in jail for 90 days and/or fines them if their farm animals make too much noise. The new neighbors of these farmers claim they want the “peace and quiet” of the countryside. I would like to know what planet these new neighbors think they’re living on.

In the mornings early, where I live, somebody’s rooster heralds in the dawn…..sometimes a stray cat meows in the fields…..dogs often bark to say hello to one another through the woods. There are birds that chirp in the trees, crickets that sing at dusk, the occasional horse that passes by, leaving it’s dung on the road. That is the “price” I pay for choosing to live in the countryside…..a price that I welcome, because I feel I am living among some of God’s best handiwork. What can be said for a human being who has so lost touch with the sounds of nature that they want to close it out completely? Nature is more than the smell of fresh grass and flowers….it is more than the moon rising over the forest, and the mist lingering over the hill. Nature is alive…..and so are the creatures living in it.

We want everything handed to us on a platter…..most of us don’t make the connection between “beast and beefsteak.” Perhaps if we all had to hunt for our own food we wouldn’t be perturbed by the noises of nature…..we would realize that those noises help to maintain us. Is the noise of city living any more civilized than that of the farm?

From the woods,

Jennifer Avalon
© 2000 Jennifer Avalon