A European Blackout and My Lightbulb Moment
Sugar Britches… Following yesterdays epic blackout of the majority of the Iberian Peninsula, which caused Spain, Portugal, and some parts of the south of France to lose all power yesterday, I am sitting on the terrace and considering my take aways.
I firmly believe that every perceived negative action can constitute a time to reflect and grow. Every single thing that occurs in our lives can give us insight into ourselves and how we can improve our hearts and minds. This is my experience from yesterday and I wanted to share a bit of my own reflection in hopes that we call can learn to be introspective.
Look, I am not going to paint a pretty picture for you. On the contrary, I would like to hold myself accountable for my own thought process and subsequent realization that I am guilty of operating on a “ME ME ME” ideology.
Yesterday morning marked our 7th day living in Barcelona. Our home, situated in the heart of the Gothic Quarter has been the result of a lot of hard work and years of dreaming. My partner, myself, and the dogs woke up around the usual time and went for a walk through the medieval streets of our neighborhood. The girls chased pigeons as my partner and I sipped our coffee and enjoyed watching the city wake up around us. Shops began opening their doors and locals began their morning routines. People on bicycles making their way here and there. I watched them and couldn’t help but wonder where they were off too.
After returning home and showering to begin our day of furniture shopping and running errands (as you might imagine, moving to a new continent means replacing a lot of things you take for granted like sofas, beds, televisions, and kitchen utensils and appliances) we were just about to walk out the door when the door bell rang alerting us that a delivery was at the front door of the building. Just as my partner answered the call box, all of the power went out. We thought that this was exclusive to our home and thus didn’t panic. Certainly there is a breaker box…. But where?
I picked up my phone to email the building maintenance about the issue only to realize that I do not have any wifi… or cell service, on my American number… or my new Spanish number.
At this point I grew angry because the wifi and cell service is through my new European cell and internet company and I just knew something had gone wrong. Now, I am not exactly the most technologically savvy person but for both of those things to not be working I knew it wasn’t me (it typically is a ME issue when it comes to technology not working).
We decided to go to our cell phone service company store only three blocks away to get to the bottom of why MY service wasn’t working. My thoughts immediately went to MY problems… MY real estate deals (for those that don’t know, I have a real estate consulting company in the US that helps people buy and sell homes)… MY social media…. ME ME ME.
It took only a few steps out of our building and into our neighborhood to realize that the entire block was without power. Certainly, our doorbell didn’t do all that lol…. Then the next block, and the next. Stores and homes all dark with people standing in front of the shops and on the balconies looking around as everyone was attempting to come to terms with what is going on.
Once we got to our service provider’s store we were informed that it was, in fact, ALL OF SPAIN… and Portugal! I began to worry. With the world in turmoil how could a large mass of a continent be affected? This must have been something nefarious…. Panic began to set in and my heart raced a bit. I became hyper aware of my surroundings as we left the building and it didn’t take long to see that the traffic was gridlocked and the public transit was shut down. Street lights left busy intersections jammed and the streets full of people… CALM people.
I was confused…. Do these people not know the power is out and cell phones don’t work…. Elevators are not operational… stores are dark, but open for business.
Wait, how are they open? And people are shopping? Albeit, with flashlights, electric lanterns, and cash but they were shopping and buying. The people on bicycles were going about their day. The nail salons were still doing pedicures in the dim light of the store front windows. The ice cream shops were still serving up their cones of yummy delights, and the grocery markets were still open as people came and went with the sundry items they needed. No one was looting, no one was price gauging, and everyone was kind and helpful.
At this point I had my “LIGHT BULB” moment….
WAS I THE ONLY ONE PANICKING?
The answer was….YES!
As I started to think about what this inconvenience meant to me I realized that I had allowed my own conditioning of MY problems, to overtake my logic. This is a very typical American trait, whether we want to admit or not. I began to calm down and considered what this really meant for me. We went back home and took the stairs 5 stories up (great cardio and it’s good for the butt) and decided to turn around my thinking.
We put on our swim suits and laid out on the terrace (Yes, with 50 block sunscreen) and took a nap while getting some color. I went down for to grab us each a cone of ice cream from the neighborhood shop (3 scoops of course) and made a sandwich from the kitchen for us to have for lunch. Afterwards I took a shower and we laid down for an afternoon nap and finally we decided to take the dogs for a family walk on the beach… for 3 hours stopping at our favorite beach front bistro to have a plate of nachos and a glass of Cava (Spanish champagne), paying with cash and tipping the sweet young woman a bit more to hopefully make up a little for a loss in tips (tipping isn’t very customary here but we still like too) from the power outage.
Once we were all tired we made out way back through the beautiful ancient streets home. Locals, sitting in front of darkened bars and restaurants, shared in laughter and beverages. Dogs played in the streets and people strolled along as though nothing was happening, all the while we all waited for the power to return. And they trusted that it would, in fact, return. Block by block the lights came on and finally for us, at almost 1 am (The TV turning on scared the dogs to death which made us chuckle.
This morning, as we started our day, we reflected on what we learned about yesterday. The world is way more calm than I gave it credit for and MY world still turned, regardless of a cell phone, a computer, a social media post, or my shopping trip. All was not just “well"… it was actually delightful. We were truly PRESENT for each other and we had a wonderful day just spending time as a little family in our new city. Learning from the locals that when we stop to enjoy life, the inconveniences that can come along with it simply aren’t so bad. Lesson for the day…. Stop and taste the gelato and feel the sun on your face. THAT is a lesson I hope to never forget.
I love you all and thank you for reading. I hope this brings a little insight and I thank many of you for writing to check on us. It was so kind.
Go with God Sug,
Christopher
