During Sunday’s loud, stormy night, I turned back to my pandemic-era Sustaining Book, “The *More or Less* Definitive Guide to Self-Care,” which has been the source of many other posts. I found what I needed last night: Quiet.

Author Anna Borges describes background noise as “the default” in our lives. There are times lately I’ve thought it was just the fault! I’ve actually wakened up, turned off the air conditioning, and slept better without its roar near my head… until I got too hot again.

There’s the problem: When is noise necessary?

Borges’ concise entry in the book under Quiet suggests caring for yourself when you “Carve out quiet time for existing without distraction. See what thoughts occur to you in the silence, or what sounds you notice that you’d normally filter out.”

It sounds difficult. It also sounds essential.

If I’m distracted by my latest library book (or how late it literally is), I won’t be thinking of how I do, or don’t, want to see its influence in my own novel. If I am talking to someone about wanting more time to write my novel — or read something that could turn into a blog post along the way — I’m not actually doing the writing.

Last night, amid the storm, my library book was too much on my mind because I knew the detective was planning for the event when the killer would strike. There were so few pages that I knew it would be resolved.

I knew those pages would still be here in the morning, but I couldn’t sleep well with the distraction of the nearly finished book waiting for me. I got up, sacrificed about half an hour of sleep, and finished the book in the quiet of my apartment at night.

The storm, and the story, were finished. I slept soundly.

Margaret Serious has a page on Facebook.