We are at the cottage and the hydro company had designated a planned outage day a couple of days ago. As I was right in the middle of this, I was thinking “How can I make my life better under these circumstances?”
There are so many things that you can no longer do because it is all dependent upon electricity and power. No more surfing the internet for you! No more googling information at lightening speed access at your finger tips or oogling other people’s profiles or posts on Social Media. No more access to TV or Internet programming like YouTube videos. You are cut off from the world at large so to speak.
You can’t phone anyone unless you have a landline which we don’t. Being in the wilderness, so to speak, we can’t call anyone because we are out of range of cell towers and can’t call over the wifi internet because it is down too. I guess we will have to resort to smoke signals or sending telepathic messages with our minds.
We have a wood stove and although it is spring, it was quite cold at only about 10 degrees Celsius at mid morning. It warmed up a couple of degrees throughout the day.
Actually, going to the bathroom is even a problem because you need the water pumps to be working if you want to flush the toilet and get rid of the evidence of your business. We have buckets of water to the ready for that exact purpose.
It is great to have fridges and stove but they are not usable in a power outage. Food won’t go bad right away especially if you don’t open the fridge door or freezer that often. Cooking requires a BBQ with propane fuel or over an open fire pit or an old-fashioned camp stove. You can’t just microwave something easy to eat nor can you go to a restaurant because you are miles and miles out of town or the city. Neither can you call a food delivery service. Can you imagine how expensive that would be for the distance and gas costs if they even considered coming to your locale? And the tip for the service? Be ready with a manual can opener or fresh food that won’t spoil.
I had planned and followed through on making a batch of coffee before the timed power outage occurred. I was SAVED for sure!
So, we take our lives for granted and all the wonderful infrastructures that society has given us. Thanks to all those people throughout ancestral history and those more recent people who have contributed to a more modern and technologically advanced society with conveniences and those who figured out the paths to take forwards for an improved state of life.
With the experience the other day we needed to experience and to start living the way previous generations had and did. We had to be ingenious and enjoy doing things that other people used to do before the luxury of electricity and power which is not that long ago of an advancement in civilized society.
I have started an initial or tentative list of things to do when there is a power outage. What do you think and what would you add to the list? Here is the list in no particular order of priorities. Feel free to add your two cents worth and contribute to the discussion. The list will be more comprehensive one day.
Breathe
Think, Process and Glean Information
Plan Your Future
Reminisce about Past Memories and Events
Reflect upon Your Life
Light candles
Eat
Drink
Cuddle, Snuggle and Hug someone (or yourself)
Sex (if you are mature enough)
Get dressed or not (stay in your pjs all day if you so desire or just feel like it)
Brush your teeth and comb your hair (We are not savages or wild ones, you know – not yet, anyways)
Read books or magazines or encyclopedias (remember them?)
Draw
Paint
Colour
Write poetry or words of wisdom or Stream of Thought Consciousness Writing
Print by hand or learn calligraphy
Journal
Clean your abode
Organize (everything from your living spaces to your wardrobe and most importantly, your mind)
Study
Work (AKA chores and tasks)
Go for a walk (jog or run, if you still can)
Cycle
Lift weights
Stretch
Exercise
Isometrics
Yoga
Go for a swim (if it isn’t freezing cold out still)
Sit by the water’s edge (Enjoy the water of the lake wave in and out with that lapping sound and sight against the shoreline)
Take photographs (Oh My, Yes, Of Course!!! )
Sleep
Nap
Dream
Relax and Release
Visualize
Say Affirmations
Sew by hand (or mend someone’s heart)
Forgive but do not forget so as not to repeat the experience
Do Puzzles
Hobbies
Interests
Passions
Do a Vision Board
Arts and Crafts
Chop wood or kindling outdoors
Split wood (not hairs)
Meditate
Be mindful
Sit outside
Enjoy the sunshine (when it comes out from behind the clouds)
Appreciate Nature (by watching the leaves and flowers grow, for example or watch the birds fly by overhead high up in the sky)
Feel the windy breeze (as it passes you by on its journey across water and land)
Invest your eyes with gorgeous colour and beautiful sights
Talk to yourself or somebody special – like Billy Idol’s song from 1981 of “Dancing with Myself” that my husband changed into “Talking to Myself” as he often changes the words and lyrics to songs for fun and amusement and why not?
Sing, Hum, Tone or Chant
Play musical instruments like drums
Dance (solo or with someone else – Umm – again…Billy Idol…)
Tell or make-up jokes
Whisper to one another through the Silence and Quietness (for fun, of course)
Play board games
Play with toys
Play cards
Do magical tricks – pick a card, any card…
Play paper and pen games like tic-tac-toe
Play games like skipping rope, tag or hide and seek (old-fashioned games for the little ones or big ones too)
Play sports
Sit around the wood stove or fireplace or fire pit
Tell stories
Go for a drive
Pray
Count Your Blessings
Write a Gratitude List
Laugh
Love
Live
Kiss (especially SpiderMan Kisses with the upside down kind between Peter Parker and MJ or Mary Jane Watson)
Use your 5 senses of touch, sight, smell, hear, taste
Cuddle or play with your dogs, cats and other loving animals (even hug your plants if you want to although technically, they are not pets, you know…)
Use your 6th sense called Intuition
Be happy, joyful and content!
Appreciate and Celebrate Your Life!!!
Send out positive vibes and energy!!
Send out thoughts and feelings of LOVE!!
Finally, use your Imagination and Create Something Wonderful and of Beauty and Goodness to Benefit the World !!!
Maybe in the future, we will get a generator and will be able to utilize an alternative emergency power source but for what happened a couple of days ago, we were living old school. Here is the thing, YOU CAN AND WILL SURVIVE!!! We will too and we did!
In the meantime, while I have dealt with this unusual situation and circumstances, I just may have decided to not do much of anything at all and simply enjoy life and the passage of time.
So Be Well Everyone!!! Hope this helps someone someday.
Lots of Positive Energy and Love Being Sent Your Way For Sure!!!
Book: “Grand Theft Weight Loss – How Stealing Scientific Discoveries Outside The Diet Industry Helps You Lose Weight,” Michael Alvear, BooksGoSocial, 2021
Book Review by Mary Mikawoz
Henry Ford revolutionized the auto but he did so by borrowing from other industries. He looked at sewing machines and watch industries where they used interchangeable parts. He looked at continuous flow processes in flour and in canning industries. “He mimicked assembly line techniques from meat-packing plants and breweries.”
In a similar fashion, Michael Alvear has borrowed ideas, information and developments from other industries that have been around, in some cases for decades, and applied them to the diet industry.
First and foremost, Mr. Alvear says the very most important thing to determine is the right question to any problem. Once you have the question, you can look at the information and process it appropriately. For example, in the billion dollar industry of dieting, the only message seems to be a variety of diets but they all say, “eat less and move more.” If that worked, there would be one diet and it would work for all of us. We would all be skinny or fit but in actuality, it does not work.
Dieting is an illusion that says some foods are good and others are bad. Depending upon the particular diet, it gets confusing because they contradict each other from pro-protein to anti-carbohydrate and anti-fat diets.
Research shows that the harder you try to lose weight, the harder the body tries to fight back. Further research shows that your metabolism can slow by 15% which explains the constant lose weight quickly and then gain it back even though you are sticking to a diet.
Michael Alvear uses a number of techniques from other industries to help a person lose weight. I know a lot of people with eating disorders around the issue of food intake so although a lot of the techniques are interesting, I wonder if they will work.
We can control what we put in our mouth but what our body does in the process of metabolizing it is another issue. We have genetics and we have the environment. How much does each serve to affect us?
There are bigger issues involved. Why can’t we just accept ourselves as we are and believe in HAES which stands for “Health at Every Size.” When will society just accept that people come in different heights, weights, shapes, colours and features. We would never expect a Chihuahua or Poodle to act and look like a Great Dane or a Husky and yet when it comes to people, we need to somehow fit some magical mould of what it means to be “perfect” including people going to extremes with getting surgeries and starving themselves to death.
I give this book a 4 out of 5 for stepping out of the diet industry box in an effort to bring in some other angles to look at.
I like the bins that line the prairie landscape. It is reminiscent of the storing and packaging up of important goods that have taken time and space to harvest or reap. It has taken a lot of effort on the farmers’ part to seed and help grow the crops. I am thankful to the farmers for all their hard work because without them, life would be so much harder.
I took this picture near Île-des-Chênes, Manitoba which is south of the City of Winnipeg. The town is an unincorporated community in the Rural Municipality of Richot. According to its website, “This francophone town was settled in the mid-nineteenth century in an area prolific with oak trees, and that’s where the town got its name, which translates to Oak Island.”
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This is a photograph that I took of a cattle farm. There are many cows but one in particular has noticed me and is taking note. I don’t know if he is saying “Hello!” or “Don’t come any closer!”
The red barn has seen better days because it is worn and weathered. It needs a fresh coat of paint.
I have made it into a black and white photograph. The clouds look as if they are to open up and pour down some rain.
I am thankful to all the farmers for producing our food especially in this time of corona virus. I have much gratitude for all those who work so hard to keep our community healthy. Thanks so much!
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Manitoba Bison – Photography by Mary Mikawoz Click image or link to see entire photograph
Manitoba Bison
This is a photograph I took of the master bison of the herd. He was definitely the largest and the most dominant. He led the other bison on a rampage towards me as they thought I had food for them.
This image reminds me of the University of Manitoba Bison symbol and logo. Even though I am alma mater to several Universities and Colleges across Canada, my biggest connection is as alumna to the University of Manitoba.
I love this bison because he is majestic, strong and perfect.
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I took this photo of this beautiful White Arctic Wolf at the Edmonton Valley Zoo.
According to the City of Edmonton website, “Arctic wolves are well adapted to survive subzero temperatures, up to five months of darkness and weeks without food. To blend in with their surroundings, they are usually white with grey or brown undertones.”
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Yes, these pink flamingos are playing “hide and seek.” It is nice to see that animals and birds play games just like humans. Ok, I am kidding. It does look like one could be counting with the help of the duck and the others are hiding. Seriously though, they are amazing how they can crank their necks like that. Plus, did you know they process their foods in their mouths upside-down? Interesting! Love their rose colouring against the dark background.
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Book: “Angels of Abundance” by Doreen and Grant Virtue
Book Review by Mary Mikawoz
The bad part of this story is that I have misplaced the “Angels of Abundance” book. The good part of this story is that this will be a review based on what I remember. I finished the book a week ago. It was a good short read.
I found the book to be a good basic book for beginners. It talks about the various Archangels that are able to help you. It also speaks of the book “The Secret” by Rhonda Byrne. What it does is to point out that the message of “The Secret” was not complete. It is one thing to have positive thoughts, however you also need to pair this with action of a similar path. A person can dream all they want of possessions and what not but that is not the single way to get it or them. Action is required as well.
Well, I realized I did need the book as a reference so I searched around and I found the book. The subtitle says a lot about the book – “Heaven’s 11 Messages to Help You Manifest, Support, Supply and Every Form of Abundance.” Of primary point is that you need to ask for help. It is written that if you do not ask, you can not receive. You have been given free will and with that comes the responsibility for you to ask for help. It is heard and will be given. Of second importance, is that “The How is Up to God.” This means that in his time and space, the item or experience will be given when it is for the better or best of all people concerned. Each chapter comes along with more information for the abundance.
I think one of the most important chapters had to do with “High Energy = Faster Manifestation.” It covers food, exercise, stress and keeping motivated. By keeping your energy high, the abundance will appear more quickly. These are ideas reinforced by Abraham who is channelled by Esther Hicks. You have to be in the flow and not resisting in order to achieve those things that you wish to receive.
The book overall is, like I said, a basic book. Many of the concepts, I have read before but it is nice to see the whole thing presented here. It is the energy work that you need to focus on.
I was not financially compensated for this post. I received the book from Hay House for review purposes. The opinions are completely my own based on my experience.
Mary Mikawoz Creative Pursuits Blog 