Lights Off

On Sunday afternoon I was whizzing about the grocery store, picking up food for the week. When I was checking out, the clerk said to me, “You don’t look so good.” This took me a back a little until she added, “Are you sick?”

I hadn’t really thought about it because I’d been so busy the last little while but at that moment, I realised that I was, in fact, quite sick. I don’t know if it was because I had all of a sudden become aware but by the time I got home I was in pretty bad shape physically with fever and flu symptoms. However, my brain was still going.

It was thinking about how I had to measure the side yard for the decomposed granite delivery the following week, how I still had about a dozen shows left to write for, how I had to go to the store tomorrow to work, how I had a trip back to L.A. and Vancouver to plan and the return to Denmark in January. So. Many. Things. To. Do.

I set up shop on the sofa; the laptop, tea, and DVD’s were placed all around me. But my body with it’s aches and pains just didn’t want the laptop resting on it and the achy ears didn’t want the DVD on. But I just didn’t know how to be still – it had been that long.

Recently I’d read in a magazine about a woman who took the weekend off from electricity and thought what a charming idea {that I’d never do}. But this seemed like the perfect moment to try – 24hrs with no electricity. No email, no DVD’s, no music, no harsh lights, no cooking. Nothing but bed, reading and fruit eating. Sounded good to me.

However, the reality was something different. When I’d read something I’d get an idea and want to google it out or when my eyes became tired from reading but I was too restless for sleep I wanted that DVD. But I got used to the stillness slowly, took queue from my cat on when to curl up and sleep or peer out the window and watch leaves rustle.

When the evening came about I finally had reason to light every single candle and the place just glowed {and smelled divine!). I drifted in and out of sleep over the next twenty four hours, never knowing if it was 11PM or 4AM and not really caring. It was good to disconnect in order to reconnect and I think this is something I’m going to try to incorporate into my life once a month. The twenty-four hours electricity free.

Lucky I’ve a lot of book reading and bike tripping to catch up on!