Power-less.

It's amazing what a difference a little power makes.

I Googled the word "power" and came up with a few interesting definitions:

In physics, it's the rate at which work is performed or energy is converted
In math, it's an exponentiated number, such as in xn
In philosophy, it's the ability to control one's environment or other entities

I stopped when I got to the philosophical definition of power. When I think about my environment, there are a few things I have power over. I have power over what shoes my kids wear. I have power over what gets planted in my perennial garden (pinks, purples, whites and true yellows, please). I even have power over the remote.
 
Yet I truly do not have power over my environment. I have no power when it comes to the weather. I have no power over Bryce's food allergies. This weekend, food allergies and weather crashed into each other, rendering me exrememly powerless. Food allergies and severe weather--really, do they have anything in common?
 
We are powerless over both. We can't predict the weather with 100% accuracy just as we can't predict an allergic reaction. We can't control the weather-although we do cloud seeding to try to make it rain-we can't control those clouds.  We can't control food allergies-although we clean and wash and worry-we can't control the allergies.

We have to deal with their aftermath. When severe weather strikes all you can do is hold on for the ride and pray . When an allergic reaction happens all you can do it hold on for the ride and pray. (well, and give appropriate medications).

We were powerless this weekend, due to severe storms that blew through our area. While is it not fun for anyone to be without power, it's especially not fun to try to feed a toddler when you don't have power. Bryce is used to certain foods at certain times prepared certain ways. When we lose power, we lose the ability to prepare the foods we know he will (and more importantly CAN) eat. We can't simply order takeout. His food has to be homemade. We survived the 40 hours without power. Bryce ate. We tossed a lot of spoiled food-but we all survived.

I've started a list of items to have on hand for Bryce to eat should the power go out. Because I don't ever want to feel so power-less over being powerless again.