Thankful for fleas

I have nothing here that compares to the ten Boom experience, but I can relearn my lessons from them anyway.

Joy said the other night that she had grown thankful for power outages. The power flickers or turns off at least 2-5 times a day, and more often on campus than at home. It flickers every time the national power grid goes out while we wait for our guards to turn the generator on. It flickers again when the national grid turns on. We have to run around if we have anything plugged in to particular sockets and unplug them to make sure they don't get fried during a power surge when it comes back on.

Mostly I was thankful for the emergency lights that turn on when the power is out so I'm not left completely in the dark. Joy, however is thankful for the blackouts themselves. They are a daily reminder that even though problems happen, they are all temporary and leave eventually. When the power goes out, we sit back and smile (once we unplug the computers) because we know that Even this shall pass away.

The House itself is a little weird too. It's pretty soundproof. We don't hear the baby next door or ant of the other people living on the complex. But boy can we hear what goes on outside! Every car horn informing the guards they want to be let in, every time the guards are laughing and talking, the generator, the birds, it all makes its way inside.

But of course, the car horns let me know that my ride to work has arrived and it's time to go downstairs. Yesterday during the faculty retreat, we heard from our head of security. I realized I should be, and am, thankful I get to go to sleep listening to the guards' boisterousness - it means they are awake. Silent guards I've noticed are guards that are laying down. I am thankful to hear the outside come in and know my family is safe.
-- Derrill