Lessons From a Power Outage

Sometimes it takes an act of god to remind you what really matters

Brooke Landberg
Jul 21, 2017 · 3 min read

What do you do when your wedding is in three days and — while the sun is setting and you’re printing programs and your partner is trying to email some crucial final paperwork to the caterers and you’ve got precious wedding-cargo cooling in the fridge — the power goes out? And not just for a second. You hear what sounds like a transformer exploding and you know this is going to take a while.

In our case, we laughed.

Next we grabbed head lamps and sweatshirts and hopped on our bikes in our pj’s. We followed the sound of sirens through our neighborhood until we found some fellow pajama-wearers on bicycles congregating around the fenced-in power substation.

Apparently a crow had flown into the transformer and caused an explosion that could be heard for miles and was expected to knock out the power of a third of our town for at least three hours.

Our neighbors were peering through the fence at the poor charred bird. My partner — in typical Daniel fashion — was chatting up everyone in sight. Everyone was speculating about how such a thing could have happened, and laughing about the fact that their Game of Thrones catch-up sessions had been interrupted by a Black Bird.

Admittedly — in typical Brooke fashion — it took me a little longer than my partner to really enjoy the experience. After all, this was going to put a wrench in our final preparations!

But then I remembered what the wedding — and life — is really for. It’s meant to be enjoyed. And so I started to enjoy myself.

We got back on our bikes to go explore our darkened ‘hood when Daniel spotted a blackberry bush. “Let’s go get cups and pick these berries!” And so we did. Ten minutes later, we were back at the bush — tramping around in thorny brambles with head lamps on, picking blackberries and pricking our fingers in the dark.

Daniel was making jokes like,

“What does a blind man say to a blackberry bush?”

“I don’t know, what?”

“Ouch!”

And I — I was laughing, and thanking this Act of God for reminding me what really matters.

After we got home that night, and I was lighting candles while Daniel was hooking up the battery backup just long enough to pull a few episodes of Game of Thrones off the server, he said,

“Man, crows should fly into transformers more often. Power outages are awesome.”

And I said, “Oh darling, we don’t need to sacrifice crows and perishables for happiness. A power outage is a state of mind.”

Bicycles, neighbors, and blackberry bushes will still be here tomorrow. All we need to do is remember to enjoy them.


Brooke is a mentor, writer, and recovered worry wart. She helps fellow angsters get out of their heads and into their lives.

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Brooke Landberg

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Working toward freedom.

The Daily Lift

Grounded insights on living well — and loving well — in an unwell world.

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