Thursday, December 11, 2008

Our Life Is The Creation Of Our Mind


I try not to make theism a habit, just as a general rule, but every now and then, the moment moves me to contemplate the possibility of "something more". As I sat in the dark, yesterday morning, lights off of my own accord, water turned off via the county of Dekalb, I listened to the rain gently hitting the roof and walk outside.
Due to a mix up in the mail, our water had been turned off, the day before and The Bureaucracy had informed us that "someone" would come out between now and the end of the week. It was Tuesday. I panicked, at first, dropped my phone (which I then had to run out and fix in the middle of the water fiasco), yelled and screamed. After ten deep breaths and a few additional words and phrases muttered on the Bureaucracy's behalf, Kellen and I brainstormed and we bought several gallons of water at the store for flushing the toilet with.
I'm not sure how I thought toilets worked but after hearing, time and time again, the old "if it's yellow let it mellow; if it's brown flush it down" advice, I ought to have seen this coming. I was, though, completely shocked to learn that our toilet takes 1.7 GALLONS of water for every flush! We immediately instated the Mellow Yellow rule and tried to use what we had sparingly.
So it was, with great pleasure, that I awoke to the sound of rain the next morning. It didn't take me very long to evaluate the points of greatest collection. Our fabulous porch canopy provided six drop spots which I quickly harnessed with buckets.
Two hours later, I was cold, wet, sore and elated. I had gathered almost ten gallons! The dogs and baby watched, most likely confused but slightly amused, as I gathered my buckets and contained them in the gallon jugs we had already emptied from the day before. Around eleven, I ran out of jugs to contain the water so I settled in to simply fill up buckets because w would probably need that water, whatever the containment method. Suddenly, the skies cleared. Then, the water came on.
At first I was crushed because, what would I do with all of that water? Then, Kellen showed me how to work a toilet (I suppose, that is his redemption for the bit about Gloria Steinem) which I had only a basic understanding of prior to this event. It turns out, the water can be used even when we're getting water from the county. We'll show them! Our water bill ought to be about $30 less, next month.
Back to god. Do I really think that I needed a lesson in conservation? Perhaps. Do i think that God lost my water check in the mail, bribed county to wait exactly 24 hours, and made it rain, putting the idea of water collection into my head, only to turn off the rain and turn off the water just to push me in the direction of Bill Nye and Al Gore? No. Would I just naturally accept that the former sequence of events was, indeed, god's plan, if theism were a daily practice? Perhaps.
In my newest journey into positive and calm psychology, I will take a more Buddhist approach and agree that nothing is good; nothing is bad. We make our own happiness and sadness with whatever is presented to us. in the words of Marcus Aurelius: the whole universe is change and life itself is what you deem it.

3 comments:

Karla aka Ditzy said...

Aaahh..now the water collection makes sense!!!

I read books. said...

Haha, girl, don't you pay attention to my WTE/Facebook ramblings? I was a one-note Nancy, yesterday. :O)

LMerwin said...

One could argue as well that it was YOUR intense inner desire to have the idea of conservancy brought to the fore and cemented in your "aware" zone that triggered the events that led you here. It is certainly nice that God helped...