What can you derive from an experience? How can you use it to shape your future…even if that future is just a few hours.

We lost power yesterday for about 5 hours. I didn’t open my refrigerator because it wasn’t clear how long the power would be out and I wanted to keep as much cold in there as possible.

That meant I could only have warm soda and warm water. I was missing my caffeine fix and my morning shake.

I had to get my camping gear out to power up a small USB light once I was done using my phone for my basic morning tasks. But I also had to charge the phone.

And it was raining so that was messing with my intent to do a heat acclimating walk.

Poor me.

Was any of this in my control? Some was and some wasn’t. The weather and the power outage were not. The rest was.

I ended up spending a lot of time working on editing my book (it’s printed out so I didn’t need my computer for that, Just some light.

I went out to walk a short walk later in the day. It was warm but not real heat training.

I got so much done on my book that it felt really good. I needed that time to “be with” my book.

I felt gratitude for all i have that makes my life easier. It also reminded me of the times in my life when this wasn’t such a big deal. We didn’t have all these electronics so when the sun came up we could still read or write something until the power was restored.

I am grateful for that experience yesterday. It also reminded me that this upcoming race can be full of surprises and my only course of action is to deal with what I can control and figure out how to deal with what I can’t.

Who’d have thought that a short, 5 hour power outage could teach so much about life?

All our experiences can do this.