The Highway Or The Bugs?

Some hear noise pollution; I hear an invitation to listen more deeply.

Years ago a neighbor told me she wanted to move because she could hear the highway and it drove her crazy.

The highway? That was not something that bothered me from my house, even though we lived only about 200 yards from each other.

It wasn’t something I focused on.

Like many moms, I have bionic hearing. My husband is constantly asking incredulously, “You can hear that!?” Once she pointed it out, it could have been like that phenomenon where someone says, ‘Do you hear that?’ and then that’s all you can hear. But it still didn’t bother me.

These days we live in a different part of town where the highway is even closer and more audible. Once the leaves fall off the trees, it sometimes sounds like it’s right in the backyard.

You know what else I can hear? The spring peeper frogs calling to each other when the weather turns warmer. And the crickets and the cicadas humming in the summer. And the birdsong all year long. Those sounds drown out the noise of the highway.

If I let them.

I could choose to focus on the highway sounds and be irritated that the sound of wheels on pavement is a constant racket.

Or I can focus on the sounds of the insects and life teeming around me. What you focus on matters.

With my bionic hearing, I do notice the highway sounds sometimes. To me, it’s worth the luxury of having 2 different grocery stores 6 minutes away and being able to hop on the offending highway and quickly get to where I need to go. It’s a decent trade off to have the convenience of a city 15 minutes away and most of my family at only a 30 minute distance.

My neighbor from the old neighborhood did end up moving away. She wanted to go to Maine where there would be no highway bisecting her town. She wanted to live deep in the woods and that was what worked for her. She had a different checklist than my family of what was important to her.

While my old neighbor needed forest silence, I've found my peace in this suburban soundscape. The highway hum reminds me that connection—to nature, family, and convenience—comes in many frequencies. You just have to tune in to what matters most to you.

As a life coach for working moms, I help women tune out the noise and focus on what truly matters to them. Ready to find your frequency? Let's connect and discover how to make your daily soundtrack work for you.