It’s amazing how much you learn to appreciate something, only when it is gone. A few weekends ago, we survived without electricity. 60.5 hours to be exact. No heat. No hot water. No light.
While it would be easy to look around and notice all of the things we didn’t have, it was an opportunity to stop and appreciate what we did have. We relied on the resources available to us—blankets and jackets to keep us warm, a gas stove to heat water and food, the ever-longer days of spring, and most of all—our neighbors.
Once we realized the electricity wasn’t going to be restored anytime soon, we rushed to pick up the floor of the tiny Legos, toy trucks, and race cars that would become hazards in the late night walk to the bathroom. We wore our footed PJs from Christmas, bundled in extra blankets and read books with flashlights. It reminded us all of camping, until we thought of our food getting too warm in our refrigerators and raced to run an extension cord across the street to our neighbors, who somehow hadn’t lost their power.
In the morning, one neighbor went door-to-door offering (hot!) coffee, another invited an elderly couple to warm up next to their fire, those with gas water heaters offered warm showers. Countless friends and family members invited us to come stay with them.
How wonderful would our neighborhood (and world?) be if we were always so generous, so giving to each other? To check in with each other regularly, not just when the power is out. To offer that “extension cord” every now and then just to make sure things are okay.
We were the recipients of the light. Now that we have come out of darkness, we have been called to share our light with others—offering the same kindnesses extended to us. We are called to be loving, to be generous, to be kind. To help light the path for those who have too many obstacles (or Legos) in their way.
Let us, together, believe there can be light again in the darkness of our world. Let us work together to bring kindness and generosity back to our communities, starting with the neighbors across the street. We have multiple faiths, alternative lifestyles, but at times, a shared experience of darkness. Let us extend our hand—our human extension cord—to be light to others, rejoicing together in the love that is God.
Jeanette Ehmke '00
