Last night San Diego experienced the largest power outage in history. Over six million people were without power for over 12 hours! I was sitting in my living room watching TV when bam everything shut off! The good news is this happened at about 3:30 in the afternoon so I wasn't in the dark. But I was pretty annoyed that I didn't have an TV or internet. Oh and the icing on the cake is that yesterday was one of the hottest days of the week!
Like most things in life its not what happens to you, but how you handle it. Once it was clear that the power was going to be out for while I decided to make the best of it. Cory and grabed our stock pile of wine and beer (we're always prepared!) and headed to a friends house close by to cookout. It turned out to be a really fun night, no phones, tv's or computers. Just hanging out talking to neighbors and friends. I thought how fun this would be to do this more often.
I was made painfully aware last night that we all myself included lock ourselves away behind our gadgets and TV's and don't really connect with the people around us. I was actually sad when the power came on because it meant we would all go back into our homes and shut ourselves away from the world again. Don't misunderstand me I like having lights and electricity, I was happy to have it back on. I also enjoyed the since of community and sharing that happened during the blackout.
I came to a big revelation, I'd rather be out living my life than watching other people live their lives on television. For those who know me you know that's a huge revelation for me. I am a self proclaimed TV junky! Tonight as Cory and I were settling in on the couch and having our normal what do you want to watch tonight conversation. I grabbed the remote shut off the TV and said "lets go out and do something".
We ended up at the beach people watching then walked around our neighborhood, stopping at a wonderful new restaurant(I'll post about that later) and had a great meal. We didn't do anything that exciting but it was really nice to walk around talk and just enjoy our neighborhood.
For me the blackout was a good thing, an eye opener for me on how much of my own life I'm missing sitting in front of the TV. I am not saying I am off TV cold turkey I haven't lost my mind. I want to watch less and DO more, build more experiences and connect more with the people around me.
Hopefully you'll join me in unplugging once and while, to get out and enjoy the people and places around you!
Cheers to a full life!
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