Forced Relaxation

Have you ever been "forced" to relax? When you had a plateful of ideas that you intended to do until something interrupted and forced you to stop and "smell the roses" as it were? Yesterday was one of those days. I was in the midst of catching up on a recorded nutrition webinar that I had missed earlier that week, before starting on some cooking projects and eventually getting on to preparing dinner. Suddenly the skies grew black, the wind started to whistle and the thunder, lightning and rain came down. As much as that got my attention for a few short minutes, my attention was completely captured once the lights went out and it registered that we had lost power. Power outages are always a funny thing - you just never know how long they are going to last for, leaving you slightly anxious about what you should do with the rest of the day. It left my husband and I sitting in the dimness, on the couch together chatting over a variety of things, most not very significant, some more so. For two hours, the power was out, there was no computer to beep its notifications, no cooking jobs to accomplish, no TV or other typical distractions, not even the telephone to ring .... simply an unexpected moment of being forced to be in the here and now, with no interruptions. I have to admit, when the familiar sound of the A/C unit wound up and the lights came on, I was relieved, knowing that I could get my tasks done now. But I also must admit, I wonder why we wait for the lightning storms to come to stop, listen, and just be for a few moments.