The power went out tonight. My initial reaction was – well shit … How long is it going to be out? Is it just my house? How long will my food stay cold? Did anything get fried? Where is the repair crew? Do I have popsicles in the freezer? Will they melt? Is it going to be too hot to sleep? But then I realize something beautiful was happening and I stopped my doom spiral. I welcomed what is and said to myself it doesn’t matter, it’s happened, it’s beyond my control. I just accepted what was, what is.

I then let the silence engulf me and I simply invited myself to enjoy the storm, all of it – the wind, the rain, the lightning. It’s so hard to find silence in the midst of our busy daily lives. It’s so hard to find it, that many of us actually schedule it. I know Ido. From 6 AM to 7 AM every morning, my calendar says “meditation and walk.” If it did not, and even though it does, I would not always make time to be still. We are wired to be in a condition of go, go, go, go, go. We feel if we are not constantly going, we might lose and not a productive member of society. I doubt this is news to you.

Let it be a reminder. We need stillness in our lives. We need to see and listen to the rain, the wind, and the lightning. We need time in our life where there are no distractions. Sometimes those times are forced upon us by something greater than ourselves – whether that is the great universal spirit that many of us believe in, or just acknowledging the sheer power of nature and the repurposing of our natural elements.

Ponder this. How can you bring more silence into your life? How can you reframe periods of inconvenience to become periods of rejuvenation? What’s just one small thing that you can do to welcome those unexpected gifts that initially might be experienced only as a pain in the ass?

The power is still out. And that’s ok. I’ve saved two Popsicles. It’s raining again and the continued stillness is beautiful.