When the Power is Out

Originally posted to Substack “Follow your heart but bring along your brain.”  Senator Kennedy It’s 5 am this ordinary Thursday morning here in the backwoods of Michigans Upper Peninsula. No daylight yet penetrates the kitchen window as I make my way over to the coffee maker and hit the button. A piercing green eye awakens the room with just enough light I’m able to find my way around. I stop for a moment and gaze out the window over the sink. The northern sky is bright with a glowing radiance from the sun slapping his powerful waves towards earth. A flash of brilliance momentarily lights the whole sky with spotlight of color so powerful it fills my kitchen with it’s glow, then just as quickly fades away. What a show!     I notice an ambient orange glow from the living room from the remnants of last night warming fire. I make my way to the woodstove and poke it disturbing the glowing coals. Time for another log. Almost immediately it bursts into flames creating a com...

I should have paid more attention. I wish I would have listened to Grandmas stories a little more. Grams was born January of 1900 and loved us until she was 96. One day she simply said “This old body has had enough, I miss grandpa. I love you.” And she was gone. My grandparent spent 71 years together. I sure so do miss her sitting across the counter from me and my cousin, telling us stories of life in her cabin before the state made her and grandpa put in electricity. That was in the late 1960’s, if memory serves me correctly. She was upset about the whole deal, Grams loved the cabin just the way it was. My Dad and Grandpa built this home for their retirement. Lovingly put together from the trees on the property. Nestled next to an old dirt road, the log cabin faced a pristine body of water. At the time it was built there were no other houses around that crystal clear lake at all. It was peaceful and serene. During my working days I spent many years caring for old people. Some in nursi...