habit

The power went out yesterday. It has happened a couple of times in the past few days. It's not a huge problem. After the first time, when you quickly eat all the ice cream out of the freezer, you just patiently wait. Perhaps bail out the sump pump. Perhaps talk to the people you live with. All of this is fixable. I am fortunate to live in a country where these power outages are exceptions rather than the rule.

The interesting thing to me wasn't the outage itself. While walking around the house, when I entered a dark room, my hand would instinctively reach out and flip the light switch.
It happened a few times and I thought, "of course that wasn't going to work, there is no electricity". But after about the third time I realized that this was happening before I even thought about it. I mean, I knew that it wasn't going to work, but my hand snaked out like Thing from the Addams Family to flip the switch. I had a disembodied hand making the decision for me.

But here is the rub, how many other things am I doing without thinking?

I will endeavor to pay attention.