What Truly Has Value
Motherwit moments can strike at a moment's notice. An ordinary occurrence reveals an extraordinary lesson. An unexpected event teaches us what we value most. Last week, Motherwit struck when a |
| The Emperor in "The Nightingale" Image Credit: Creative Commons |
The driver brought down the power lines and brought on a short power outage. The two hours of darkness taught my niece new skills and instilled a deeper appreciation for what truly matters.
Cozily curled up on the couch, my mom, niece and I were enjoying hot pizza and Faerie Tale Theatre. The episode of Hans Christian Anderson's "The Nightingale" had captivated my niece, Sophia, who loves anything related to China.
The story tells of an extraordinary friendship between a great, Chinese emperor and a simple nightingale. Even after the emperor rejects the nightingale, the little bird returns to him on his deathbed and saves his life.
When the emperor had lost his power, he discovered what mattered most. He knew then what to preserve, and what to let go. Ironically, the outage also taught us what to save and what to use up.
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| What can we discover in the nightingale's song? Image Credit: Kev Chapman |
Life Lessons and Practical Magic
The emperor discovered that the nightingale's loyalty meant more than all his imperial splendor and power. Similarly, Sophia discovered that problem-solving, creativity, and love mean more than electricity and even an excellent DVD.In all her ten years, Sophia had never experienced a power outage. Snuggling in blankets, we told stories and watched my seven-month-old kitten gaze upon the gas log fire. Grandma and Sophia took a walk to see how far the power outage extended. The power came on seconds before they returned.
My mother and I gathered flashlights, lit the fireplace, and safeguarded food in the refrigerator and freezer. Sophia longed to finish the show, but she got into the pioneer spirit, carrying candles, winding up the human-powered flashlight, and watching the fireplace. She regarded each emergency measure as as a piece of practical magic and the outage as a new adventure.
Sophia later told her mother how we kept the refrigerator cold. We moved frozen half-gallon containers of ice from freezer to refrigerator. The refrigerator then functions like an icebox until power returns. This adventure leads to this week's tips on preserving food in an outage. Even when power outages limit your options, you can choose one of these ideas.
￠Mothercents￠ Preventing Waste in a Power Outage
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| Half gallon milk jugs stand and freeze well. |
Plastic half gallon milk or juice containers make excellent emergency cooling agents. Wash them out and fill them with clean water, but leave two inches empty at the top to allow room for freezing. In an emergency, use them to cool perishable food in the freezer, refrigerator, or cooler.
* Experiment with smaller bottles with tight caps as ice packs for injuries. Ice can stop swelling and pain very effectively.
2. Use porches, balconies, garages, basements or cooler rooms.
If you have one of the above, you may have an extra refrigerator or even freezer in cold weather. I once weathered a three-day power outage without food spoilage, simply because we moved perishables to an unheated porch in a chilly November.
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| They store well on my top shelf. |
3. Eat what you can't save.
My mom, Sophia, and I treated ourselves to big bowls of ice cream in front of the fireplace. When you're unsure that you can outlast an outage, use up the most perishable items first.
Knowing power outage safety empowers us at a time when we have no power.
Motherwit Moments
Not all discoveries comes with fanfare and fireworks. More often, we learn priceless wisdom in small epiphanies. If we pay attention, we can find the extraordinary in rather ordinary circumstances - a power outage, making dinner, or a sunset.What extraordinary tidbits have you discovered in an ordinary moments? Please share these moments in the Comments section.
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