Power (or lack of)

As the tagline of this blog states, there are times I move forward by first moving backwards.  My goal was (and is) to write something everyday.

Yesterday I woke up with every intention to do just that and went through my morning routine of praying, reading a few daily words of wisdom books, drinking 32 ounces of Himalayan salt and lemon water, stretching to prevent another soul crushing back “issue”, writing in my five minute gratitude journal and meditating.  My new plan is to write something in this journal as part of that routine but yesterday I was up against a self-imposed time dead-line to hit the gym with Debbie.  So I told myself, I would do it later.  That is the problem with later.  It never comes.  So, by slipping backwards, I have been giving another gift from my higher power to keep moving forward.

Another gift was given to me last night.  We lost power.  Again.  There was severe rain and wind gusts of up to 50 MPH in the morning.  Then the sun came out and was beautiful.  Then, six hours later when all has been calm, we lost power.

For me, losing power brings peace as all electronic screens go dark.  For my family?  Pandemonium, anger, and a deep resentment in Debbie rises up and I get hit with:  “Why don’t we have a generator?!!!”.  My boys go into preservation mode on maintaining as much battery life as they can.  God forbid they miss out on the latest Snap Chat, Instagram post, or group text :-).  The Alabama (#1) vs. LSU game (#3) game was also on the TV which was now a blank, cold, dark screen.   They did pull out our new favorite game, “Cards Against Humanity”, but we never got to it mainly because I did not jump into action.  Again, I moved backward and did not take full advantage of the power loss to have a real connected experience with my sons.  My lack of engagement was based in the fact that I had to be up at 415a this morning to make a flight to Miami to help Dad.  But seriously, not taking 15 minutes of my time to play a game with my sons?  I did go through a nice ritual of watching a slack of crazy videos Jack saves to show me.  All on his limited battery life.

Not sure if anyone was really up for the game but thinking it through this morning, I realize I need to move forward on that front as well…and get that generator for Debbie.

P.S.  The power came back on an hour and a half later so I trust my family is waking up with fully charged screens in my happy place.