A few weeks ago we had a power failure. It was in the evening and the sun would soon be going down. We couldn’t watch TV and without any Internet, we only had our phones working. I checked online for information about the power failure and it sounded like it might be several hours before it would be back on.
My wife and daughter played cards by candle light and I went up to bed early to read using one of those little lights that clips on to a book. It was cold out so nobody was outside for us to hear. I occasionally heard laughter from downstairs, but otherwise only the sounds of my own breathing and the pages turning.
The next morning, my wife and I were talking about how quiet it was. It was peaceful. It was like the lack of power slowed down the frenetic energy of how life seems most of the time.
The power had come back on sooner than expected, which made me happy because of the food in my freezer, but I was sorry that peacefulness was gone so soon.
I’ve been thinking about that and how we shouldn’t have to wait for a power failure to find that quiet. We can and should find it often by putting down our phones, turning off the TV, and listening to the quiet.
