I heard owls on the first night I slept without hospital noise

Dear Delyara, I spent four months in hospital after a severe infection. The first night home, I could not sleep because the house was too quiet. Then, sometime after midnight, I heard an owl outside. One call, then another farther away. I had forgotten nature makes sounds at night that are not alarms. I opened the bedroom window despite the cold and listened. My wife complained and pulled the blanket higher. I sat there smiling. Recovery has been full of big milestones doctors care about—blood tests, walking distance, medication changes. That owl mattered differently. For months, night sounds meant somebody’s machine was unhappy. At home, something outside was awake for reasons that had nothing to do with illness.