Day 367 (technically, THE LAST ONE)
Today brings an end to my year-long challenge. I need a break and …
I am off to the woods.
That one sentence sounds perfectly lovely to me. So simple. So carefree. So quiet.
If you haven’t gathered the inference in my other posts, I’ll fill you in … it’s NOISY here!
What sounded like a train running into my neighbor’s house woke me early this morning. There was no collision – just the snow plow guy dumping his truck at the corner. I don’t know where he got the snow because the roads are clear. But he was “tapping” his plow on the asphalt and well … let’s just say I’ve had gentler wake up calls!
Not long after that the garbage trucks came by. As garbage trucks do they rumble along … and these new trucks pick up, empty and place back down the big plastic bins that line the streets in my area. Long gone is the noise of metal can lids being thrown on the ground and empty metal cans being tossed around … but still!
Then the planes started. Well, they didn’t start as they have been constant (CONSTANT) since I moved in. I was just now aware of the thunder-rumble that enveloped my space since I had been so rudely awakened. I could not, however, hear the clinking of my stemware in my china hutch from my bed – though I knew it was happening (which is also constant)!
And then as I was figuring out whether to get out of bed and acknowledge Moby’s face in mine, complete with her little purple pillow of friendship for me … the sirens started. It’s the first Tuesday of the month. The city in which I live has emergency preparedness sirens for every catastrophe known to man … and then some. I think there is even a siren to warn us of attacking porpoises! I wouldn’t know though as I never got a “Siren Decoder Booklet” when I moved in. So, anytime I hear a siren I just figure we are under some terroristic, natural or alien attack … which from the frequency of the sirens … is pretty much all the time!
I want quiet. I want peace. Basically, I want peace and quiet.
I want to go off to the woods.
If you’ve never been in deep woods – go. Hell, go now! Drop what you are doing and just go. Your soul will be centered like no other place on the planet (unless of course your soul is centered in the middle of a rock concert or on a surfboard riding a giant wave or on a bustling city street … well, you get the picture). Anyway, go!
I’ve often imagined a life like Ted Kaczynski’s … you know, the Unabomber guy. All alone, living up in some little cabin in some cozy woods. But that would mean that I was spending my days plotting against humankind and making bombs and well, that seems a bit off, even for me.
So, maybe instead …
I could be like the witch in Hansel and Gretel who lives in a darling little cottage made of candy, deep in the woods. When I needed something sweet, I could go out and snap off a piece of peppermint bark or a nice, plump gumdrop … but then again, I’d be eating my house which would be counter-productive. And I’d be kidnapping and eating children which is just, well, not my thing.
Or …
I could live in the woods in a wonderful little cottage with a thatched roof and all the wild animals would be my friends, and I’d sing and the birds would land on my shoulders and chirp along and I’d have seven little housemates to help with the chores and to keep me company … and, oh, wait. I’d have to be Snow White. And then I’d have a wicked, evil stepmother and poisoned apples to contend with. Even though there is a handsome prince involved … I don’t know … it still sounds ify.
In any case … I just want to go to the woods. I want to fling my arms around a Redwood or Sequoia … or maybe even a basic White Pine or Oak. I want to smell their bark. I want to see moss and lichen … and all things green. I want to hold a slug. I want to photograph a forest mushroom. I want to be somewhere where I only hear my footsteps and my breathing and maybe a bird or two singing hello as I pass. I long for the crunch of twigs underfoot and that fragrant earthy mustiness. I want to hear only the wind rushing through the treetops and see a deer drinking from a stream and its white tail before it is hidden again in the underbrush. I want the peace. I want the quiet.
And so … thanks for reading and until you hear from me again (which you probably will) – if only in my mind … I’ll be in the woods.