Some thoughts on resilience from the eye of a storm

Here in the mountains of Northern California it feels like the year hasn’t started - like we’re stuck in a no man’s land between 2022 and 2023. Every day we get a text message that reads 'Expect power to be restored at 10pm January 1st'… then 2nd… today it says January 12th. We had power for one day last week, just before the 5th storm rolled in. I celebrated by showering, and thank goodness I did.?

In an ironic twist of fate, I had planned the first week of the year as a week for mental health and reflection. My baby was supposed to be in daycare. I hoped to write, set intentions and reach out to old mentors. Instead, I found myself running up and down our rain-washed mountain, clearing debris whilst trying to keep an infant warm and everyone else sane. Sanity evaded our water-phobic mini Schnauzer on day two (he now barks constantly and exclusively goes to the toilet indoors). These are the kind of things that become normal when you’re trapped in your home without access to amenities or human contact. There’s a lesson here - you can set all the intentions you want, but control is an illusion. The weather doesn’t care about your plans.

The old saying goes ‘sometimes you don’t get what you want, you get what you need.’ Having run out of gas, with no internet, source of heat, or childcare, is this the mental health week I needed? Perhaps this reminder of my internal resilience and preparedness for the unknown is what 2023 requires. Losing power isn’t unusual for us. In 2021 PG&E started to cut power to the network of 1,600 homes in our patch of California if they registered even the smallest disturbance on the lines. As a result, we’re more prepared than people in the nearby town of Los Gatos, for whom losing power is an anomaly - an excuse to light candles and maybe a fire for an hour or two. We’re also more fortunate than those whose homes have flooded down in Santa Cruz and Aptos. Or those who live on or near the burn scars from the 2020 fires, where the water runs straight off the land, washing it away.?My heart goes out to everyone in those communities and I'll be supporting Santa Cruz volunteer center - who do great work in the community- as soon as I resurface.

Like many people here, we have a back-up generator. We also have a back-up for our back-up that we repaired ourselves. We have two freezers stocked with food (because one is faulty), two camping stoves to cook on (also because one is faulty), and despite having run out of firewood, we have a broken wood pellet stove that sometimes graces us with heat and other times doesn’t turn on at all. Today is one of those days. It’s 45 Fahrenheit outside, so now it’s 45 inside too. There has been a few mudslides, and although one is just passable, it means driving off the road, inches away from a precipice. Small parts of our road network have washed away or folded themselves into potholes. It’s incredible how fast that happens. Despite 185 people living on this road network, the same handful are out clearing culverts to prevent more water run off. There’s a sense of community amongst those who show up. We swap power tools and stories of the ridiculous ways we’re keeping ourselves warm, dry and fed in our homes. It’s remarkable how many meals you can make out of one bag of sweet potatoes.?

We have also laughed a lot. A couple of months ago we discovered that our baby is inexplicably soothed by disco music (not our genre of choice). We were on a long car journey and she was crying when a friend sent me Hot Chip's new song Eleanor. As soon as it came on, she miraculously stopped crying. Since then we've experimented with other genres but disco is consistently the only music to soothe her. As I write this Le Freak by CHIC is playing on repeat on my dying iPhone whilst my baby claps to the lyrics ‘Ahhhhh FREAK OUT’.?

So here we are. A little soggy, dancing to disco (now to stay warm), dog pooping inside the house, and exactly where we’re meant to be because I have a feeling these lessons will be as applicable to life as normal, as they are to weathering this storm.?

1. The weather doesn’t care about your plans
2. You’re more resilient than you know
3. Remember someone else always has it worse. Help them as soon as you can
4. Focus on the basics
5. Don't step in the shit

And always, always keep laughing.