A little light goes a long way…
My BEST (and totally unexpected) Chanukah/Christmas/ Holiday present arrived on Christmas Eve.
The backstory. North Carolina hit 9° this morning and took out power for thousands of cold folks. When the power returned, I fell face first into my unacknowledged addiction. Uber user of the internet. Sigh. There are two Wi-Fi networks in this house and the gods of energy knocked both of them out. (Adding my very plaintive and pitiful “ARGH!!) In addition to being an Uber user of the internet, I’m a news junkie. Sigh. Just letting it all hang out in the interest of making myself vulnerable🫣.
I watched myself go through the 5 stages of grief. (Seriously.) Denial, anger, bargaining, depression, and acceptance. No, no, this wasn’t happening to me (denial.) I don’t drink, smoke, or watch TV, but as mentioned earlier, I do liberally feed at the internet trough. And suddenly, it was gone! (And I’d already meditated.) 9° outside and you think I’m gonna go for a walk? Dream on.
Anger was up next. Coursing through my mind, I could hear my little five-year-old yelling, “I want my Internet! I want my internet!” Grinding my teeth, I tried to revive the WiFi with my very limited repertoire of technology gambits. And of course, I tried the same ones again, and again, and again because, well, it was Christmas Eve and maybe there was magic in the air.
Ah, yes, bargaining next. If I really, really, googled all sorts of options, I bet I could work this out. I’ll be good and responsible to myself. Plunged into a high-minded google search, but you guessed it, bargaining with the technology gods is not my forte. (Somehow, showing those technology gods that I was being responsible still didn’t do the trick.)
Ah, depression finally made an appearance. I missed my annual Christmas Eve Quaker candle lighting worship BECAUSE I couldn’t get online. Deep sigh.
Finally (and oh so reluctantly) I rolled into acceptance. Oy. I could still hear some small plaintive cries in my head, “I want my Internet!“ but realized I’d, unsuccessfully, run my personal gamut for bringing the Wi-Fi back. I emailed a very busy young man from my neighborhood, asking if he could help me in the next few days. (It was SO difficult to write the words “in the next few days!” I want my WiFi NOW! ) However, I did execute them and finally settled down to do what I should’ve done hours ago, eat some dark chocolate on Christmas Eve, that panacea for sore souls.
10 minutes later, there was a loud knock on the front door. Too early for St. Nick, I thought. No, it was St. Travis, my young neighborhood technology wunderkind. (I wish I could say he was astride a reindeer, but his glowing with goodness was more than enough for me!) In less than 5 minutes, my internet trough was once again full and I was aglow with unexpected Christmas Eve magic.
The moral of this Christmas Eve story? I have no idea, but it’s such a gift to watch a young man transform from the 6-year old I once knew into a loving Santa.
❤️Please consider sharing with others. Who couldn’t use more heart and humor in their lives?
A Christmas miracle!