In Northern Survival, there’s a scene where John is complaining about how noisy nature is at night. Whether it’s owls hooting or peepers peeping, the night air is a chorus of musical creatures, and they keep him awake.
Olive says this to him: “You don’t believe me now but wait. You’ll see. The first night you lay in bed surrounded by four walls with the window closed, you’ll wonder where those sounds are. You’ll start to wonder if everything on the planet is dead. It will be so quiet, so void of life you’ll feel like you’re sleeping in a tomb.”
I wrote this from experience. Several years ago, when the kids were small, we owned a pop-up trailer. From mid-May until mid-October, we slept in it every night. It was only in the backyard, but the kids and I thought of it as an adventure. We were all together, and we talked in the dark until we nodded off to sleep.
The canvas of the camper kept out the weather, but not the sounds. We heard our rooster go off at 5:00 am, the ducks quacking spells throughout the night and the train whistle blow. And then there were the peepers. They were loud at first, but eventually, they blended into the background.
After months of sleeping ‘outside’ surrounded by nature, we moved back inside the house. By this time, we were waking in the morning with heavy frost covering our blankets. There was no heat source, so we kept adding blankets to stay warm.
The first night inside, I lay awake for hours, feeling completely out of place. The sounds of nature I had enjoyed over summer were gone. It was so quiet, it felt like I slept inside a tomb. It took about a week to adjust to the silence. I still remember it, and I long to once again sleep outside all summer. Perhaps this summer will be the year.
For the month of March, Northern Survival is on sale for $0.99 (regular $4.99). Pick up your copy at Amazon. It’s also available to Kindle Unlimited Members.
Diane McGyver 