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There is beauty in finding the silver lining, even through the darkness. It is there if you search for it.

– Tracey Ehman

As I was walking to my car to leave for my evening class a few weeks ago, I noticed rivulets of brown water streaking the street, and a few puddles here and there. I didn’t think much of it, but by the time I got home from class a couple of hours later, there was a stream of gushing water racing down the entire street.

Curious, but not concerned, I jumped the stream and walked back to my apartment, looking forward to throwing my sweaty uniform into the washer and taking a cool shower. But when I turned on the faucet, I got a hiss of air and nothing else.

Uh oh. Broken water main.

It took CWW nearly two days to fix it. Because I love an adventure, I gamely navigated the experience of life without running water. Yep, I put on my dungarees and straw hat, saddled up my horse, and went to fetch water, not from the well or the river, but from Kroger.

I minimized all washing, in order to conserve my supply. I ate sandwiches, so I wouldn’t have to wash a bunch of dishes. I had to accept that I wasn’t going to be doing any laundry or taking a shower. And when I used up that one, glorious Single Flush that you get after the water is shut off….well…maybe we’ll talk about that later.  

By the second day, I was feeling that the adventure had run its course and it was time to reach out to dear friends to ask if I could (please, please) come over for a reprieve and a shower. Being without water isn’t my favorite, but it was a good opportunity to turn a grungy experience into a grand experiment by unearthing as many gifts as I possibly could.

I found quite a few:

  • A new appreciation for the gift of water
  • An awareness that water is the Creator’s gift for everyone. It’s not meant to be bought and sold
  • An awareness that water wants to run free, not be run through a pipeline
  • The return of the water habits I learned living in New Mexico
  • Saying hello to the CWW work crew and thanking them for their service, when everyone else was demanding to know how much longer this was going to take
  • The gift of being able to buy water at Kroger. I may or may not have also bought doughnuts
  • A place to hang out…with running water
  • Time with dear friends and time to be outside in nature for a while
  • The opportunity to say thank you

The art of living requires us to be flexible and seek the gifts present in what appears to be a difficult situation.

If I’d been sour and disgusted and grumpy about a broken water main, not only would the whole experience have been a thousand times more difficult, I would also have missed out on some pretty cool stuff.

Staying present and looking for the good is key to buoyancy in challenging moments. It’s all about learning to float, instead of flounder.*
 
*Disclaimer: Any water-related puns in this paragraph are NOT intended. Well, maybe.