Get Out of Town! - Bruce Atchison

I heard no voice nor felt a powerful compulsion. Leaving Edmonton's noise and rude neighbours behind made logical sense after suffering seven years of churlish neighbours and flatulent vehicles ruining my repose.

Of course it was God who arranged everything. My mother was in the mall one day in April of 2000. Seeing a new real estate office, she began chatting with a woman there.

I happened to be talking to Mom on the phone about my perennial neighbour problems when she mentioned her conversation with the realtor. That's when I asked her for the agent's name and phone number.

The woman I contacted showed me around several little towns. The houses there were either too expensive or not what I needed.

In the interim, I prayed that if God wanted me to buy a house in a small town, I would also need access to a grocery store and post office. I also asked for a house with no nearby neighbours.

Radway was the perfect place for me. The house I toured had no neighbours close by and it sat across the railway tracks. It had been on the market with no offers put on it since 1997.

Another of the Father's plans fell into place when I received a large payment from Ottawa. The union filed a court case against the federal government because clerical workers weren't paid as much as similar workers. The court ruled in their favour and I immediately put the money in my account.

And since nobody put an offer on the house after a few days, I bought it. Most of the money paid for my down payment and I also put in a septic field so the tank wouldn't need pumping every two weeks.

After twenty wonderful years, I still love this little house. I can write and rest without noisy neighbours and city traffic assaulting my ears. Like Abram, I found my "promised land."

Is There Any Escape from Noise? by Bruce Atchison

Finding quietude is such a rare experience in our world these days. Flatulent vehicles, blasting stereos, roaring jet planes: they all ruin our repose.

My professional writing career started out poorly. Those churlish next door neighbours assumed nobody would mind all those shrieking boys their son invited over. Neither should anybody dislike hearing their dogs barking each evening for hours on end. After all, everyone likes dogs, don't they? The same goes for loud music and clouds of barbecue smoke, right?

I found no escape from noise for those first four years. Believing that I could have more say over noise at a condo, I sold my house and bought one. What a huge mistake. The rumble of traffic and junky cars coming into the parking lot created tremors in the floor I could actually feel. Worse yet, a belligerent young man figured that he could tune up cars in the parking lot and nobody should complain about the racket. When I did, he became as incensed as my previous neighbours.

Fearing for my life, I moved to an adults-only high rise. That was a big mistake too. The suites were being sold as condos, prompting people to renovate them throughout the  day and long into the evening. One old man also used a storage space next to my bedroom daily as his carpentry shop. He gave the apartment manager many lame excuses when I complained but she ordered him to stop. Even so, renovating continued unabated.

Renting the main floor of a house became my third blunder. The neighbours ran a tow truck company out of their home. Diesel rumblings and their loud backyard music broke my concentration daily. Those owners also became enraged when I politely asked them to turn down the stereo volume

Our heavenly Father showed his compassion by delivering me from the noisy city to a quiet hamlet. It had everything I asked for. Radway had a grocery store, a drugstore, a post office, and my house was across the tracks. No nearby neighbours derailed my train of thought either.

I praise and thank the Lord daily for my miracle home. The money, the listing, and the right real estate lady providentially came together to rescue me from the torment of city noise. Living here is like a permanent writing retreat. What an awesome God we serve!