Gratitude. It’s All in How You Look at Things

We had a power outage for a few days mid-month. If you want to discover the stuff you’re made of, experience a small tear in the fabric of life, like losing power in winter. I discovered that I am made of tissue paper.

It was a temporary and brief interruption. An inconvenience. But as the hours dragged on, I became increasingly impatient. Appointments didn’t happen; work piled up; my phone couldn’t charge; I was entirely offline. I couldn’t afford to lose this time! I called the power company. I checked for updates obsessively. I ignored the fact that teams of (mostly) young men were working around the clock in bitter weather to get us all back online.

Then, after power was restored, and I had rescheduled appointments and comfortably reordered my life, I came across a blog post from my colleague, Mary Jo Rapini (who was a recent guest on my podcast, too).

She lives in Houston and, while her house was unaffected, she regularly interacts with those who lost everything to Hurricane Harvey. For these survivors, life can’t be so easily resumed—it isn’t a matter of flicking on a switch. They are living in temporary housing or with friends and relatives. Significant parts of their lives—homes, pets, photographs, precious possessions—are gone forever. Many, if not most, of those affected will deal with PTSD for a long time.

That story is repeated for thousands of people throughout the world—in California and the Middle East and Africa. I can’t really imagine being in those circumstances, and I suspect that tissue paper doesn’t hold up so well.

Mary Jo’s message cast my small discomfort in a new light. I was complaining about a paper cut, while others not so far away are recovering from an amputation. It was a helpful reality check.

“Love is a verb,” says Mary Jo. Love manifests itself in actions large and small. Hidden and heroic. It reveals itself in the work that only you can do in this world, whether that’s taking care of grandchildren or founding an orphanage.

Love and gratitude is what this season is all about. I’m taking that more seriously these days. For starters, I’m grateful for that power outage.