May 26th, 2024 Sunday Rainy
Last Tuesday, our city was struck by a tornado. While severe thunderstorms visit every summer, a real tornado is still (thankfully) rare in this area, so I was a little excited.
The tornado siren went up. My husband went to the lower level of the house with the two kitties, who seemed less concerned than curious, despite all the lightning and thunders outside.
I was washing my hair in the bathroom when the power went out. All of a sudden, the world turned dark.
With more experience and preparation, my husband quickly produced a torchlight that allowed me to finish my hair washing routine. Not knowing how long the torchlight could last, I suggested lighting some candles to enhance the visibility.
Well, I would say these scented candles provided more ambiance than brightness ?
Our evening plan was disrupted, since we could not watch an online drama show without electricity. As I reflected on our choices of activities, I realized that all of the typical entertainments we do after dinner require power. Even though board games do not need power to play, it would be very challenging on our eyes if we could only rely on the dim candlelight.
Modern life is probably impossible without electricity.
In the end, we resorted to do some crafting together – I knitted while my husband crocheted. I picked a relatively simple project because I have yet to build my muscle memories for knitting, and any slightly intricate design would demand more eye-hand coordination, difficult to execute under the current circumstance.
In the meantime, my husband was desperately trying to reach the local utilities company, hoping for a quick power restoration. Unfortunately, this tornado being the most destructive that our city has seen in more than ten years, over a quarter of the customers of this company were powerless. There was no estimate as to the timeline of power recovery.
We had to be resourceful and adaptive. We bought some ice to help keeping the refrigerator and the freezer cold, then avoided opening their doors again. We gave our kitties extra dry food to compensate for not letting them enjoy their usual pate. We cooked instant noodles for dinner with fresh vegetables and mushrooms from a nearby store, instead of our stock in the fridge drawer. We also went to bed a little earlier because we really ran out of things to do.
I was worried that I might have a hard time falling asleep. Strangely, I slept reasonably well and woke up naturally. It is as if my body is re-attuned to the rhythm of day and night, now that the interference created by everything electric (e.g. artificial lighting, computers, screens) has disappeared. During the dark nights, I sat next to my husband with Yuuki and Sesame curled up next to my feet. A sense of serenity rushed in.
Sometimes momentarily stepping away from things that you are used to might shed light on your inner voices. It is worthwhile to pause the daily hustle and listen to them, just for a little bit. What do we actually NEED in life? Perhaps not as much as we took for granted.