Tag Archives: enlightenment

differences, living and growing

A 3 year old’s “why?”

I remember my Dad telling me a story of something I did when I was three. My dad, a recently retired Major in the Air Force, had invited a Lieutenant Colonel over for dinner.

I was sitting next to this man when I noticed something. I pointed to his arm and asked him why his skin was a different color than mine. When my Dad later told me this story, the impression I got was that he had been embarrassed by my question.

Reflecting on it now, I’ve come to understand that my Dad wasn’t so much embarrassed that I asked the question as he was by not having an answer. My dad had respect for humankind and had a diverse friend group. But my question caught him off guard.

That story popped into my head today, and I realized I have an answer for my three-year-old self.

I’ve recently started doing some online watercolor classes. I am learning about colors and the role using different colors plays in creating something beautiful. And the question I asked so many years ago came back to me. But this time, it was not overshadowed by embarrassment but instead filled with understanding.

Why would someone have a different color skin than me?

People have all different color skin because God is an artist. He has a whole palette of colors available to him, and he will not be limited to one color. When you ask a small child their favorite color, they often respond, “All of them!” God answers, “All of them,” too.

I can imagine my three-year-old self asking why he didn’t make purple, pink, blue, or green people? And I would tell myself it is because God saved some of the colors for sunsets and flowers and trees.

God is an artist who not only created color but knows how to use it in the most beautiful ways. Imagine how the world would be if we looked at each person, whatever color their skin may be, as a masterpiece created by Him!

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addictions, blackouts, comfort, electricity, enlightenment, home, honesty, inertia, letting go, living and growing, peace, perspective, power, struggles, Uncategorized

Enlightened in the Dark

12 hours.  That’s all it was.   Short and sweet, really.   Friends in neighboring towns still don’t have it.   Power that is.   The completely underappreciated gift of walking over to a light switch, flipping it on and getting light in return.

12 hours, that’s all it took for me to appreciate that I am hooked.   Completely dependent on electricity.  The night time wasn’t so bad.   It wasn’t cold out and if it weren’t for my dog barking, I could have slept through the first 6 hours….blissfully unaware.

But my dog did bark, and I got up to check on him.   Flipped the switch to walk downstairs and…nothing happened.   Flipped it again, surely this was just a fluke?  Nope.  Nothing.   At that point, my son, who doesn’t believe in sleeping when it’s dark out, popped his head out of his bedroom and told me, “We’ve lost power.”   Oh.   Hmmm.

Now the nagging questions start.   Has anyone else lost power, why have we lost power, is everything alright?   It’s a little tough to tell at night if your neighbors have power.  But I spent a good hour, spying out different windows looking for a clue.

Then sleep….well, I would have slept except that’s when it dawned on me that my youngest wasn’t home from his shift that ended a t 11:30 pm and it was now 1:30am.  Thankfully after I sent a frantic text he responded quickly and assured me he would be home soon.  And he was.

So sleep finally came and quickly on it’s heels came morning.

Granted I was groggy that morning but still…..I found myself sitting – for two hours, in my recliner, doing pretty much nothing.   Don’t want to use the phone and drain my battery…but what is going on?   I need updates!!!  Meanwhile I continue to sit because somewhere in my head, without realizing it, I had determined I couldn’t do ANYTHING without power.   And it was at that moment I realized how truly dependent I had become.

Really, I could do nothing?   That’s ridiculous.   It was daylight after all.   Open the shades and get something done!  So I finally hauled myself out of my one recliner that is manually operated….did I mention how I also discovered in the middle of the night that when you don’t have power your electric recliners won’t work?   Who knew?!

While my kids wanted their devices, I wanted my FRIDGE!  Two weeks prior, someone left the door to my fridge open and in the morning I had the depressing job of throwing everything I had just bought the night before…out.   And here I was again.  Two weeks later and again, I had JUST gone food shopping.   But whatever!  I was use to this.   But the freezer too?   Man!   And no hot water, no oven, no curling iron (this was getting serious!) no washing machines, no, no, no, no……goodness, does everything plug in these days??   When you don’t have power it seems like it.

Even my land line disappointed me!   Like a dinosaur from times past, I have doggedly held onto my land line.  Because everyone knows when you lose power, only the land line works.  Except in this case, where we had lost our phone service too.

And then the magic happened.   A few beeps throughout the house….and voila!  Microwave clocks again tell time, TV’s work, phones can be charged.   Ahh, all is right with the world.

And I realize, I need to break this addiction I have to electricity.   Toughen up!   Kick it old school and go off grid!   I don’t want to feel this way again!   But as my refrigerator happily hums away, in my warm and well lit room, I find myself thinking maybe I’ll just get a generator…..

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