Did you hear the sounds of change?

This past weekend, I found myself in upstate New York. In a town named Fishkill. More precisely, on the outskirts of this town. Quite a distance from where I live, and probably not a place I would visit of my own volition. That's not to say that it isn't a nice place to live, I just don't think I could give up the easy access to the city I grew up in for it.

The reason I was up in Fishkill this weekend is because I was helping my cousin and his pregnant wife move into their first new home. Four bedrooms, two and a half baths, and a half acre of property. Plenty of room to grow into. All of it in a small cluster of homes surrounded by woods and abundant amounts of wild life. The most visible form of wild life being the deer that kept crossing the roads we traversed.

I used to think it was quiet living out here on Long Island, but after spending the night up there, I could see that I was mistaken. Either that or the sounds of silence here have gotten louder as time has progressed. I remember as a youth listening to the sound of crickets chirping in the evenings, seeing (and chasing) the lightning bugs as they looked for mates, and seeing the stars overhead.

All of which I hadn't heard before in my life when I moved here from New York City. Now, as I listen for those sounds, I hear different sounds. I hear the loud descending chug of an eighteen wheeler downshifting as it tries to slow down, I hear the whine of jet engines flying overhead, the chop of helicopters passing by, and the spray of sprinkler heads watering manicured lawns. I see the orange glow of street lights reflecting back into the sky obscuring those same stars I marveled at when I saw them for the first time I saw them out here.

I don't hear the sounds or see the sights of my youth anymore. Did those things I noticed at first become part of the background noise? Or did time, along with increasing prosperity, hurry those sights and sounds on their way to extinction? It's not that I lament their passing, (for I am not much of a student of natural history such as Thoreau.) I only wonder how they slipped away without my noticing. Times, they are a-changing.