Sometimes what can seem like the darkest of times end up being the brightest of memories.
Last Friday a severe thunderstorm passed through Tate County. The winds were strong and howling and the rain thundered on our tin roof. We had only just arrived home and I had started cooking dinner when the storm hit. It didn’t take long before the power went out.
There we all were. No lights. No power. No internet. And because we have an electric pump on our well, no water.
We opened the blinds on the winds and sat down in the living room to wait out the storm. Although, the storm clouds were dark, we still had dim, gray, late afternoon sunlight illuminating the room.
It didn’t take long before the boy child and girl teen wandered into the living room and set up residence.
See, if I’m honest it has been awhile all of us unplugged and just sat to talk.
As the minutes ticked by and slowly turned into hours, the conversation grew more animated and filled with laughter.
Football plays, pop bands, Michael Jackson dance interpretations, AI generated songs with less than tasteful messages, friendships, relationships, crushes, TikTok and the philosophies of Plato filled the slowly darkening room with conversation.
Before we knew it, right in the middle of me making a statement about “The Cave”, the lights flickered on and illuminated the faces of my children and husband. All of them were looking and me and immediately squinted in the unexpected radiance of electricity.
We were all grateful the feeling the air-conditioning blowing from the overhead vents. We heard the kitchen appliances kick on and life returned to “normal”.
The children once again returned to their phones, friends, televisions, and video games. I began checking emails and the husband returned to “tiktoking” and action movies.
I sat for a moment and thought about what had just happened. The kids sought us out in the moments of darkness because we were comforting. Everyone was relaxed in the dark and no one was afraid of the outside tremulous weather.
In fact, I never had the heart to tell them we were under a tornado warning during a portion of the outage. In the darkest moments we filled the home with love and laughter.
During the days to come, we’ll have branches to clear, yards to tidy and storm damage to assess, but I for one will be grateful for the pause. In the eye of the storm, my family came together, and I couldn’t be more proud.
