Peace and Quiet
For the first few days here I thought I’d gone deaf. I couldn’t ‘hear’ anything. It felt like I checked in to a soundproof room. It was almost unnerving.
At home, the radio is usually tuned into the new s or music. Outside, cars and UPS trucks pass, dog walkers chat, lawn mowers purr, leaf blowers whine, carpenters hammer away somewhere, jets from Logan Airport whoosh up to cruising altitude, a basketball thunks on my neighbor’s wooden deck as their son practices his dribbling, a radio broadcasting the news in the next room. I had no idea how much “sound” there is at home and how much energy I spend taking it in. They’re sounds that I hear but don’t register.
Here, I feel like somebody switched my intake dial from AM to some as yet unnamed station on FM. Up on the hill where the farmhouse stands, the most constant sound is the wind sighing through the alamos and eucalyptus trees. The resident rooster declares his presence on the hour. In the distance, the faint rumble of a tractor. When the wind is right (depending on how you think about it) I can hear traffic on Ruta 5, the superhighway that connects northern and southern Chile. Occasionally the neighing of a horse. And dogs barking. It’s surprising how fast the mind adjusts to a new environment. There are five pretty energetic doggies here. At home, that sound is annoying. Here, I take it in not much differently than birds chirping at home.
I haven’t heard a jet or a UPS truck in days. Rural environments are like this. I’m sure I could drive a few miles from my home and find this kind of peace and quiet VIDEO. In the Aconcagua Valley, there are miles and miles of it. It’s positively therapeutic.
Video Peace and Quiet1
Peace and Quiet2
Peace and Quiet3
Photos and videos by Paul A. Tamburello, Jr.
Love the photo behind the barns... very pretty.
Posted by: Susaan Straus | January 23, 2014 at 07:41 AM
Get the same experience here in my neighborhood and it's a blessing compared to South Boston.
Posted by: Jeff Piccoli | January 23, 2014 at 09:25 AM
and you'd never have been aware of it if you hadn't spent an extended length of time somewhere away from the many layers of urban sounds, glad you have peace and quiet in Port St Lucie
Posted by: Paul A. Tamburello, Jr. aka pt at large | January 23, 2014 at 11:42 AM
I am so lucky, blessed maybe some wold say, as I have that very quiet of which you speak. For me it is the " being alone and yet
connected " that makes life worthwhile. Thanks for the pictures.
Posted by: Ann Baker | January 26, 2014 at 12:07 PM
Being alone yet connected... everyone seeks a good personal balance, this sounds like one good option.
Posted by: Paul A. Tamburello, Jr aka pt at large | January 26, 2014 at 12:13 PM
agree, Paul. I think we need a nothing to do or think about or hear break.
Posted by: Susan Sullivan | January 26, 2014 at 12:15 PM