Not long ago, a guest at Ridgeview commented that a passing car was an event. Being on a cul de sac does have its advantages. No through traffic. Most of the cars familiar, either as neighbors or routine passers by—the rubbish collection, someone from Direct Disk or Verizon. A delivery truck. I often like to sit on the deck overlooking the Rock River valley, gazing at the ridge opposite for which the property is named. Often all I hear is the river, some three quarters of a mile away. Occasionally a single car or truck on the Dover Road that follows the river will drift up, sounding like distant surf. Mostly it’s birds and the wind. How nice.

The same sort of thing is true at night. When you look up on a clear night, the stars are brilliant. There’s no light pollution, and the milky way is exactly that: not an abstract concept, but myriad stars, so many the blend into milky flow. And single stars so sharp they could almost rattle on a cold night.

It takes some getting used to. When I was small, I remember we had a boy from New York City stay with us for a week or two. He was tough, and I was frightened of his aggressive demeanor. But the first night, I heard him crying out. He was afraid of the silence, the total darkness. It was like nothing he had ever known. The same is true here for so many folks so accustomed to noise that silence is startling. But its worth the effort, getting used to silence again. For me it seeps in, and I take a little with me back to “real life” in the suburbs and cities where I spend most of my days. I feeds me for days. But I’m always glad to come back to Ridgeview.