I was visiting Red Eft and Dadu in Kingston over the weekend. On Sunday morning, their 9-year-old son, WM Thing, walked past the guest room (after serving me breakfast in bed I might add) and announced: “It’s Power Day Off. Please try not to use any electricity today.” I knew what he meant because I’ve been reading his mom’s blog. Now don’t for a minute thing that this is a family of Luddites or low-techies. Every member of the family, including their 7-year-old daughter Falling Broken Wings has either a web site or a blog. Still the family likes to do without electricity and they’re really enjoying their weekly day off.

Power Day Off: Less, as always, is more from Oswegatchie.blogspot.com

You’ve heard of the power lunch and the power nap, right? Well our family is making a tradition of the Power Day Off. Like its namesakes, it is a souped-up, more intense version of the average day off. What makes it new and improved is: we use as little power as possible. It’s a day off of work for us and for the energy we use.

We break out the candles and don’t run the dishwasher, the vacuum, the dryer. We don’t turn on lights. We shun our computers. We light a fire and play Scrabble, or read, or fumble in the kitchen to cook (we do use gas; we do keep our fridge plugged in and open it for food; we do turn on the front light so our house isn’t completely black; we use the phone. So far.)

It’s a real day of rest. Quiet. Still. Dark. Nothing to do but be together. The seed of the idea came to me while reading Michael Lerner’s eloquent discussion of the Sabbath—the original day of rest—in his book, Spirit Matters. Despite the change in routine they bring, I haven’t found Saturdays and Sundays to be so very restful. Power Day Off fixes the problem, I think because when I’m near a machine that’s plugged in, the thing draws some power from the outlet and a whole lot of power from me.

Checking email, pressing buttons, proliterating tasks that aren’t really urgent—what a lot of ciphons. It becomes harder to take power for granted with an imposed limitation. Yesterday I entered a darkened laundry room and turned on the light without thinking, but once I noticed, I really noticed. I’m still getting used to giving electricity a sabbatical. Earth needs more than a day off from us, but it’s a start, so spread it around:

Power down