A year on and to be quite honest, vision had started to fade and tv was becoming far too prominent. I can always identify when I’m losing sight of life goals when I’m sat watching diy television or someone making food! So it was a necessary shake up when we had yet another power cut. This time it lasted from 8am to 7:30pm. This power cut was planned and I actually bought a camping gas stove in preparation and also I saw my opportunity to use an oil burner I had tentatively bought, having had no experience in using, to create some light. The oil burner proved a complete failure.The younger children were very intereated in this wild combination of glass, oil and flame and insisted on carrying it around like Florence nightingale (who they had conveniently been learning about in school that week!). So there I was, hunched over in the dark, following them round with cupped hands around the burner it in case it fell. About 20 seconds later, we blew it out and stuck to candles which are still stressful and dangerous, but slightly easier to manage. I realised that far from the lack of heat being the problem in a power cut, it was the lack of light which stressed us out. Plunged into darkness with only flickers of light from the open fire in the living room and candles on the dining table.
I did however start to hear my eldest son and daughter in the living room, telling stores as the dreaded phones gladly ran out of battery. Triumph reigned for a moment over these beastly machines…
Out farmer friend came round soon after and took us to see where the electricity cables were being repaired and we trudged through the blackness, as he knocked on doors to check on elderly people around us. I felt quite ashamed of myself in that moment. Here I was obsessing over protecting our big strong healthy family from experiencing the smallest kind of inconvenience, whilst elderly vulnerable neighbours were potentially in need. I had more to learn..
Our families security and comfort wasn’t just for us to enjoy, but something to extend and give us a platform to reach out to others, more vulnerable, more in need.