So, where do I begin? Last night, on top of being homebound, our entire town lost power! I stood in my living room and yelled like Monica Gellar(Friends) when the lights went out. I kid you not, I thought, either Jesus is coming back or it’s a zombie apocalypse. I thought about the massive amount of food in the fridge and freezer. What I did not think about was the fact that we might get up in the morning to still no power. When I awoke(cold), checked the facebook and saw updates on the light situation I thought, oh no, no, no, no! A pandemic, homebound, homeschool, and now no electricity! Oh Laura Ingalls, you lived on the prairie but I don’t think an episode ever covered all of this!

In hindsight now, losing power seems so small, but at the time, seemed rather unbearable and unfair. Sometimes it takes the struggles to put life into perspective. We lost power for 14 hours during a pandemic, but we were all home and safe. We didn’t have heat and we were cold, but we had lots of blankets and the temperature wasn’t that low. We didn’t read as many bedtime stories, but we still had family prayers and shadow puppets by lantern light. Stuff like this makes you realize the things we take for granted. Stuff like this makes you realize what we are missing when we are in a rush. Our 12 year old said he couldn’t go to sleep without his radio(though I’m sure he could have), so I half jokingly offered to sing him a song. He accepted my offer and asked what song. God Bless The Broken Road, I told him. He said he remembers me singing that to him back when we lived in the apartment. I sang him that song for years as I rocked him to sleep, as I held him and danced with him. And now he’s this giant man child and as he lay in bed last night, I sang him to sleep. This is the stuff I thought. These are the moments I want to slow down for. If I would have rushed him to sleep to go fold laundry by lantern light, I wouldn’t have that moment, a moment that is so sweet in my mind, that I hope to remember for the rest of my life.

And when the lights came back on, a hot shower never felt so good. I whooped and hollered for a good ten minutes. Kenny and I ate lunch on the deck in the sun. And we spent hours outside walking around the block and playing basketball together.

So in all of this crazy, good things are coming out of it. And God Bless the Broken Road indeed, because those are the times we are stretched and we grow. And God Bless the Broken Road that led me straight to you.

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