The Direction of Intention

During the recent power-outage we learned the obvious: most of the activities of our life require a plug and reliable power. We learned that our access to information and connection-to-others is also plug-dependent. We learned that the car is a great-and-necessary place to warm up while also recharging devices.

We also learned how the absence of plug-driven-life greatly impacts the pace of our day. Time is a slow-moving river when the power goes out. What do you do when a screen is not available to demand your full attention? Don’t get me wrong, I appreciate my technology as much as the next person. I would not be capable of writing if I had to type my fast-thoughts on a slow typewriter. I remember with horror the days of white-out and endless retyped revisions. Also, technology makes my vocabulary seem much more expansive than it really is. Do you remember flipping through a heavy Thesaurus to find a synonym? Do you remember how long it took to research a topic when the beginning point was a card catalogue or microfiche?

The power outage tossed us back in time.

We paced so I picked up my pencils and drew pictures in my sketchbook, much as I had done as a child. We lit candles when the sun set and spoke in candlelight tones. More than once we went outside and talked with our neighbors. They were out so we went out. We made sure the elderly neighbor across the street was safe. She made sure that we were safe. We returned to a time when conversation was face-to-face. The most important news was local and immediate. We entered a era when sunset was the cue to crawl into bed, when sunset meant a drop in already cold temperatures and the only warmth in the house was beneath a pile of quilts. Time seemed more expansive and not in short supply.

We relearned the feeling of wiling away the day. We reveled in the expansion of our attention span.

In the end, we enlivened our gratitude. When the power popped on moments before the blizzard, we cheered. The furnace kicked in. The lights extended day into night. We made dinner on the stove and it was hot! Simple things that go mostly unnoticed became opportunities for thanksgiving. For a few days until trust in the plug was restored we knew that we would take nothing for granted.

And with the restoration of the power time sped up. Our screens were alight, the information inundation and rapid media stream returned. We re-inhabited the era when the question at the end of each day is inevitably. “Where did this day go?”

read Kerri’s blogpost about THE CANDLE

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Filed under: Flawed Wednesday, Gratitude, Navel Gazing | Tagged: artistry, connection, david robinson, davidrobinsoncreative.com, Gratitude, information, Kerri Sherwood, kerri sherwood itunes, kerrianddavid.com, kerrisherwood.com, power, power outage, story, studio melange, technology, the melange, time |