Safa means tranquil, serene, calm…I try

We had a terrible thunder storm yesterday. When I came home from work there were trees and power lines down in my neighborhood. When I walked in the house, I knew right away that our power was out. I wasn’t expecting the lights to be on but you know that white noise that we all get used to? Well, I didn’t hear it. I immediately sighed and thanked God that it would stay light out for a while through the evening. My next thought was YAAAAY, I don’t have to cook tonight, we can eat out!!!! Until my oh-so thoughtful husband reminded me that we have a gas stove. He also reminded me that I should cook some of our frozen food so it wouldn’t go bad.

So, I cooked. He went out to buy ice for the cooler. After we’d eaten and cleaned up the kitchen, we started moving all of our meats and other stuff to the cooler. As the sun started to go down, I began gathering and strategically positioning all of the candles throughout the house. My 6 year-old, who at first was excited because we’d eaten in a shadowy kitchen, started getting anxious as he relaized that no power = no night light. He begged us to sleep with him. I agreed since my bedroom would be a sauna without the air or fan (my room is on top floor).

I must admit, we settled into a nice quiet and calm evening. We all helped light the candles, my son helped carry our pillows down to his room, we were content. The children enjoyed having stories read to them via candle-light. It wasn’t even too hot in the house. Because we had no lights, everyone kinda got tired earlier than usual. We all had our pjs on early so we wouldn’t have to get ready in the dark. I set my alarm on my cell phone to wake up this morning. One of the last thoughts I had was how it must have been pretty nice back in the “olden” days to live by nature’s clock. No sooner than I had this thought than I heard the intrusive hum of the dishwasher. We could hear our neighbors cheer outside, my husband exclaimed “masha’Allah”!!! I smiled when the air conditioner kicked back on. My 6 year-old and 2 year-old all took delight as we walked through the house blowing out the candles.

Then all of a sudden, everyone “woke” up. No one was tired anymore. Hubby went down to the basement to go on the internet to check out ESP.N Zone, the kids started playing with their toys all over the floor, I was able to check the voice mail and return some phone calls. We did this for about 40 minutes. When it was bedtime, my son said, “mommy I guess you’re gonna take your pillows back upstairs now right?”. Before I could say, “yes”, I said, “no of course not”. He smiled. We all climbed into the bottom bunk of my son’s full size bed. I can’t say I slept like a baby. I was kicked, my neck and back ache still, and my feet were peed on. However, I can say it was the nicest crappy nights sleep I’ve had in memory.

I wish the power never came back on last night.