177. A Little Fire and Candle Light

Image is not mine

It doesn’t happen very often anymore, but sometimes the power goes out (maybe once every other year). While I certainly don’t enjoy going without electricity for a long period of time, I do enjoy an evening here and there when you have to use candles to light your way. Of course, the power doesn’t need to go out to enjoy a candle lit evening, but so many of my modern responsibilities depend upon electricity and a good old power outage can briefly relieve me of those responsibilities. With the power out I can just relax and forget all of that for awhile and just hearken back to a time before people had electricity, maybe to the nineteenth or early twentieth centuries or further back.

I like to read, so sitting around reading by candle light can be especially enjoyable. Since I don’t have a wood stove or fireplace, just a pellet stove that depends upon electricity, I have to either hope it’s warm enough, or snuggle up in a blanket to enjoy my book. Candles do give off a bit of warmth as well, so they create a coziness that easily brings a good historical novel to life. I realize many people tend to stress out because they can’t get things done, but I just view it as a momentary release from those impending responsibilities and that is a gift.

There is a bit of magic with candle light that takes me away from things for a while. We all need that and a power outage might just force that upon me of a spring evening and I just have to stop doing things. If I were getting ready for dinner I might have to cook outside on the grill or over an open flame, or I might just have to eat a cold dinner. I just have to do things more like my ancestors did over a hundred years ago. When that happens, if that happens, I just embrace it. If it happens to you just get out the candles and a good book or some board games and relax. The power will come back on soon enough.

And all that enjoyment and appreciation I get out of a power outage is also the thing I love about camping, which I don’t get to do nearly enough so a forced “camping in place” from a power outage gives me that chance to enjoy a little fire and candle light.