The lights are out...

My family and I were sitting last night enjoying a wind and rain storm, something us Oregonians are pretty use to. The lights were flickering, the cable shut off for a short moment, it was then that my daughter who is now 21 and a mother herself made the funniest of comments that started me thinking. She told me that her favorite times and memories was when she was a kid and the lights would go out due to a storm. She described the candles, the flashlights, the games and how we all huddled together and had special family time.

It caused me to remember those moments with a mixture of feelings, some happy some sad. I too enjoyed the giggling, the candles, the goofing off but mostly I remember the quiet. It was just us, a family, no TV, no phones, no radio, really no noise at all, just the sounds that families make when they are interacting. I attribute the sadness to how few the times were that our lights were out. How much did we miss as a family because PGE was pretty reliable even in the worst of weather. If I could go back, hindsight being 20/20 I would occasionally super stealth, switch the breaker, light up the candles and huddle as a family, laughing and giggling in the dark with no distractions to separate us. What seemed to be annoyance's truly turned out to be some of our best family time. God bless those simple annoyances, allow me to always see the blessings behind the events that cause the lights to go out.

God bless....

Shannon