Two weeks ago a crazy windstorm arrived on our doorstep around 9pm. About 30 minutes later the power went out…and stayed out…for almost 3 solid days.
We were a little frustrated especially when we realized the water wouldn’t work because of the power being out, but it wasn’t that bad. What I noticed over those three days though was even though we had a lack of connection – no power running through the circuit connections, no wifi connection, no satellite connection, we had a better CONNECTION…to each other.
We saw more of my family because they still had power, so they invited us over for meals. Most of the town had power even though the homes didn’t. Which meant lots of people were in town to eat, use the internet, etc. Even just in the house we had more communication because we weren’t distracted by our devices. My favorite connection was the one with myself, where I had time to just think, because I wasn’t “required” to be online, on instagram, working on something, or some other excuse I impose on myself to give myself stress about social media.
No one wants to give up electricity indefinitely. But not having it for a few days really gave me an appreciation for connection – and for the simple luxury of electricity when the power was restored. Now that I’ve had this experience I’m going to work on a couple things to try and take what I learned from those three days:
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Try not to lean on technology so heavily as a distraction for my mind.
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Enjoy the COMMUNITY AND CONNECTION with my family and people I care about and put my phone away when we’re spending time together.
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Appreciate the little things – like electricity. Sometimes it seems so commonplace, but it really is amazing.
What do you do to unplug?
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