I woke at 5:30am to find the clock on the stove flashing. Sixteen hours of heavy snow caused us to lose power for a few minutes. Still asleep, no one in my house noticed it. The same was not true for the people who live at the end our street – nor for the people who live the next street over – the ones whose back yards share a border with neighboring homes. Marion Road, Highland Court and Avenue, and High Street (pictured above) still have people without power – a half a day outage so far.

My neighbors and I had to shovel out our driveways and walks, but we’ve been able to cook our meals, take hot showers, and keep our houses warm – the last few hours of snowfall nothing more than a pretty happening outside the window, the scene enjoyed with a hot cup of coffee. None of us on this quiet street are worried about medical equipment dying, or phone service to call an ambulance no longer working. Had a neighbor not told me about the local outages, I doubt I’d have noticed – at least not until the sun sets and lights remain off.

It’s that lack of awareness that concerns me. It’s so easy to assume that everyone around me is facing the same circumstances as I am. If I don’t keep my eyes open, if I don’t bother to look closely, I’m going to miss what’s going on in the lives of my neighbors. That would be tragic.