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: “Walking Through This: Harness the Healing Power of Nature and Travel the Road to Forgiveness” Sara Shulting Kranz, Harper Horizon, 2020.
Book Review by Mary Mikawoz
I found this book by Sara Shulting Kranz to be interesting. I found that her in-depth knowledge of trauma and PTSD is based on the fact that she has had to deal with it and go through it herself.
She understands more than just an empathetic listener. I won’t repeat her life story other than to say that she has gone through a lot. We all do but that is what is so wonderful about this book is that she gives you steps to deal with the trauma.
Sara gives you written meditations that you can read and then practice. After you are done the guided meditation, she gives you some questions to consider as you take your information gleaned from this process and reflect upon any and all insights. She asks that you write about it.
I find it interesting she mentions a little fact that since 2012, the number of people meditating in this world has tripled. That is significant and shows that there is value in following through with inner work including listening to your intuition.
After learning the six steps, she asks you to forgive yourself, the perpetrator and also the world.
In the meantime, Sara has also implemented a number of practical techniques of walking in nature including retreats through the Grand Canyon or standup paddle boarding on water. From Sara doing her work, she is able to give practical advice and not that just of a psychologist or counsellor who doesn’t have any personal terms of reference and can only reflect back to you what they have heard without any concrete suggestions or relevant life event experiences or tasks to pursue.
I give this book a 4.25 out of 5 for being a useful book that was interesting to read. She is on social media like Instagram and Facebook. She has her own website as well.
Lustre – Photography by Mary Mikawoz – Click on image or link to see the bigger picture.
I have named this photograph “Lustre” for that is the French word for Chandelier. This photograph was taken in the Palace of Versailles in Paris, France. I have offset the chandelier from the light coming in through the windows for effect.
The Hall of Mirrors is absolutely glorious. It is absolutely decadent in its presentation filled with chandeliers, crystal, gold work and painted ceilings of artwork. It just “breathes” of another time and space where life was very different for the rich and famous.
With my art, I am often in a zen-type of mood and with my photography, I feel as if I am inspired by God or the Universe to capture these moments in time.
Thanks in advance for liking commenting, sharing and purchasing. Check out my other images and collections. Thanks for all positive feedback.
Hall of Mirrors – Photography by Mary Mikawoz – Click image to see the bigger picture.
According to Wikipedia, “The Hall of Mirrors is a grand Baroque style gallery and one of the most emblematic rooms in the royal Palace of Versailles near Paris, France. The grandiose ensemble of the Hall and its adjoining salons was intended to illustrate the power of the absolutist monarch Louis XIV.”
With my art, I am often in a zen-type of mood and with my photography, I feel as if I am inspired by God or the Universe to capture these moments in time.
Thanks in advance for liking commenting, sharing and purchasing. Check out my other images and collections. Thanks for all positive feedback.
This is a drawing I was inspired to create with ink pens. It is the basis of what I call the “Heart of God.” In it, you can see that there is a basic huge heart in the middle representing God or the Universe or the Highest Source Power – omnipotent, omniscient and omnipresent.
You can also see that all souls represented by the smaller hearts are connected to God. Some are within his immediate sphere and some of them are out but we are still connected. Some are small souls while other ones are bigger. There are various colours representing different levels of development or chakras. Some have some black in their hearts and some have none at all.
The point is that we are all are connected to God. We are all one. God’s energy, light and love is pulsating towards us all the time as indicated by the background. Quantum physics and science is now showing that there is one energetic field and that we are all from the same source.
Thanks in advance for liking commenting, sharing and purchasing. Check out my other images and collections. Thanks for all positive feedback.
These are three eagles flying high up in the sky. Actually, only two were originally in the photograph but I decided to add the third one as they were taken the same day within minutes of each other. They are spectacular raptors. All three are Bald Eagles but the centre one is actually an immature Bald Eagle which surprisingly looks like a Golden Eagle.
According to http://www.pure-spirit.com, “Eagle conveys the powers and messages of the spirit; it is man’s connection to the divine because it flies higher than any other bird. The eagle brings the message of renewed life because it is associated with the east winds – the direction of spring, dawn and rebirth.”
Thanks in advance for liking, commenting, sharing and purchasing. Thanks for all positive feedback.
This is called “Leaf Power” for the ability of plants to take in carbon dioxide and turn it into oxygen for our use. Through photosynthesis, our natural world works. Our system is divinely created and built.
Thank you for viewing, liking, commenting sharing and purchasing. Thanks in advance for positive reflections and your support.
I read the “Seat of the Soul” many years ago. I remember liking it very much as I remember having a lot of “Ah Ha” moments. I did not have my copy with me so I borrowed somebody else’s copy to read again. This time I found myself less impressed. I am not sure if it is because I have read many books since and I dealing with this subject matter from an entirely different perspective or that the points he makes are not new to me. Nonetheless, I found myself more critical this time.
It did not help that the person who owned this book wrote in the margins comments and added question marks to what they did not know or understand. This made me more critical too. I began to wonder what exactly was Gary Zukav trying to say.
The book covers many great areas such as evolution, karma, reverance, heart and so forth into intuition, light, relationships, souls, power and trust. It is though provoking and I am sure it would make an excellent book or literature circle book. I came to challenge a few concepts. One of the first ones is Gary Zukav’s use of the word “personality” which I personally would change out with the word “ego.” This to me, is a better indication of what he was more likely saying although perhaps this would be too much of a psychological word for him.
The second thing that I take issue with is his assertion that pets and other animals don’t have personal or individual souls. He believes that animals belong to the group soul. So, a cat or dog does not have his own personality or soul. From my observation of our pets, they definitely have their own personality and are able to tell if you are sad. There is cognition on the part of some animals because they do have the ability to understand what is going on. Maybe they do not understand everything but they are certainly capable of more than we give them credit for. I understand that many religions and thought processes would agree with Gary Zukav but I do not.
There are many fine points such as that there are five-sensory people and there are multiple-sensory people. He talks about karma, reincarnation and illusions. He indicates how the law of attraction will bring to you that which you are exhibiting. If you are being negative, negative situations and people will appear in your life. He talks about the only thing that is real is to be loved and loving.
Finally, Zukav makes the point that we are a soul with a body not a body with a soul and that we are struggling to achieve authentic power in our lives. Spiritual psychology will be able to explain psychological problems in terms of a splintered soul and not only from a strictly medical model.
Mary Mikawoz Creative Pursuits Blog 