A fallen limb brought the lines down during the storm.
Around midnight after a Halloween party, we returned home in pouring rain to find the entire property without power.
The gate was closed, the Wi-Fi was down, and a fallen tree was lying across the entrance.
I climbed over the gate, found a couple of ladders, and helped Katy get across before we walked up the dark driveway.
Eventually the power came back on, and we headed back down to move the car away from a place where runoff could become a problem.
That was when we saw the utility lines sparking beneath a large fallen limb.
We called 911, the power was shut off again, and crews arrived in the middle of the night.
From the Week
As we walked down the driveway, we had saw something we had completely missed on the way in. A tree had fallen overtop an overhead powerline.
And with the power now restored, the utility lines were sparking.
A large tree limb had come down across them, and flashes of light were cutting through the rain and darkness.
We called 911 immediately.
Fortunately, the rain kept the surrounding vegetation soaked while the contact between the limb and the lines continued to spark.
The utility company shut the power off again, and the fire department came out that night to inspect the situation.
Crews returned the following morning and spent much of the day removing the limb and repairing the damaged lines.
By daylight, the scene looked very different from the one we had walked into at midnight.
The Insight
Most of the work I do on the property happens slowly.
You notice something beginning to wear down, plan a repair, gather materials, and work your way through it.
But every so often, something asks for your full attention immediately.
There is very little room for rumination in a moment like that.
You see what is happening.
You decide what matters.
And you act.
There was something strangely clarifying about it.
The same property that usually gives us space to slow down was, for a few hours, asking us to be completely awake.
The Practice
Meditation is often associated with quiet.
But attention is useful precisely because life is not always quiet.
Sometimes practice means noticing a breath or a bird outside the window.
And sometimes it means recognizing that the situation in front of you needs your full presence.
We do not always get to choose what brings us into the moment.
We can practice being there when it does.
Heard This Week
“Sometimes attention becomes very simple: notice what is happening, and respond.”
