the problem with power

for nearly two hours tonight our power has been out. lucy and i had been out with friends. we returned home, dashed through the rain from the car to the house (since the garage door wouldn't open) and were greeted by the warm glow of candlelight. we both thought it was pretty cool. after reading stories cuddled up by flashlight i put the doodle to bed and came downstairs to...well...what would i do??? cell phone dead (and no power to charge it). t.v. obviously not working...can't even zap a little snack or warm beverage in the microwave. i suddenly felt excited...giddy almost. i looked (and listened) at the dim, quiet house around me and thought of all the possibilities.

so...what did i end up doing?? i spent the past two hours curled up in a chair reading and writing...two of my most favorite things in the world (and also 2 of the most neglected activities in my life).

~side note: if you haven't taken a peek at noel piper's book 'treasuring God in our traditions' you really should~

i have all these intriguing books that pile up around me (half read at best) and all these words accumulating in my brain that never make it onto paper.

...that's the problem with power...

sometimes i think that we can be too 'connected' to things that really aren't that important...things that really don't give our life much value. and all those things take away from the time and energy we could be putting towards something much more worthwhile.

i realize that it shouldn't take our power going out for me to recognize the importance of peace and quiet and time spent learning and reflecting. this was a good reminder though...and further encouragement that i need to be intentional about turning the power off on a lot of 'things' and turning my brain back on instead. as you can see, i probably still have a long ways to go since the first thing i did after the lights came back on was hop on the internet...

ok...powering down now...