Superstorm Sandy: A Lesson in Gratitude

Update:  Watching my family and friends struggle through Hurricane Harvey in Houston reminded me of our storm experience a few years back. 

Last night, we got back on the grid after Frankenstorm Sandy.  It feels a little strange, but we’re grateful for six days without power, not just because we escaped pundit noise about the election. It’s wonderful to see how a community pulls together — all the invites we had for warm meals, hot showers and places to do laundry. No injuries to our family or home. An experience like this can give you great compassion for people only an hour away who had a much worse struggle, and for those in the world who don’t have shelter, electricity or clean water. It’s a good reminder to me to become more involved.

This tree fell about 100 yards from our home, and took down a power line and snapped the pole in half.

We spent more time around the fireplace as a family.  My daughter wrote a pirate play, one act comedy, that we all performed together.  Fortunately she didn’t have much time to audition actors outside of our home, so I was able to book a key role.

We survived on a steady diet of grilled waffles and Starbucks Via.  The coffee helped fuel our cleanup efforts … another reason that I don’t drink decaf.

Halloween was canceled for the second consecutive year.  Last year Snowstorm Alfred last robbed us of Trick-or-treating and of power for a full week. This year, we did have the halloween walk in town. I tried to grab an extra Snickers from Linda McMahon, and she put me in a sleeper hold.

Now, every time I flip on the light switch, I hear George Frederick Handel’s Hallelujah Chorus in my head.