Thursday Thought: Borne out of energy

We lost power for 3 hours last week. Not a tragedy, it was restored after a malfunction up the street was repaired. Poor squirrel.

It was midday and all of a sudden the day got disrupted. Although it was cold outside here in New England, while we had sunlight with a chill slowly permeating the house.

What to do on a workday that you had not planned for, this midday forcing a break from all thing electronic?

Battery packs were low to mid-way charged. Smartphone, internet access, cable TV all come inside from an electric box.  Food stays cold best without opening the refrigerator or freezer. We could have taken the cars on an aimless ride and simultaneously charged our devices, as we did in hurricanes. I recalled the dark loneliness of nightfall in Superstorm Sandy and nothing to do but wait for dawn to assess the damage and safety of surroundings.

This time I texted the power company and they advised, yet kept changing, an estimated delivery time of power restoration.

Waiting.

I saw this deadzone as an opportunity to think about the deliverables for that day, especially with a formal evening presentation to zoom with the Toastmasters members in the NYC metro area. The usual mental pep talk I give myself ahead of a presentation was self-delivered early, in this dead time, for lack of anything else substantively more priority-raising than my commitment to its successful delivery. A few thoughts of alternatives raced through my head, JIC.

And there was that jigsaw puzzle to rip into and at least get the margins connected.

Then there was light.

And heat, computers, connectivity to the outside world restored.

The parallel here to my work and to yours: electronic, electric, energetic, enthusiastic, yet metered and wired as it comes into a workspace, all along with others providing supportive energy to draw upon. I texted some colleagues and answered emails from my phone. I was still in business although it was reserved to the most important issues, my clients’.

No one but me, and those who energize me in return, can generate such light and warmth.