I was startled awake to my entire world shaking. Living at the top of a high-rise, I felt like a bird being rattled out of its nest by a being greater than itself. The wrought iron panel that normally leans against my wall, was rattling and falling forward. The hanging lamps across the room did an interpretive dance all their own. My first thought, that of my baby birds as I stumbled down the hall to their bedrooms. One was awake and terribly afraid. The other fast asleep in his innocence. The building swayed to and fro as I made my way back, shaken to my very core and still in a state of confusion. The steady ground I took for granted had been pulled right out from under me. We had just experienced an earthquake with a magnitude of 6.4.
This Puerto Rico quake comes almost exactly 4 years after a powerful 7.0-magnitude quake devastated another Caribbean island – Haiti.The 2010 disaster took more than 100,000 lives.
As I lay my head back on my pillow, still shaken, but so very grateful to be okay, I couldn’t help but think of the wake up call these moments are in life. Our lives are much like the Etch A Sketch of our younger years, at the mercy of some greater force, natural or otherwise.
“The toy can be considered a simplified version of a plotter. The inside surface of the glass screen is coated with aluminium powder which is then scraped off by a movable stylus, leaving a dark line on the light gray screen. The stylus is controlled by the two large knobs, one of which moves it vertically and the other horizontally; turning both knobs simultaneously creates diagonal lines. To erase the picture, the artist turns the toy upside down and shakes it. Doing this causes polystyrene beads to smooth out and re-coat the inside surface of the screen with aluminum powder. The “black” line merely exposes the darkness inside the toy. Filling in large “black” areas will allow enough light through to expose parts of the interior.” – Wikipedia
As kids we spent so much time, focused on getting the picture to look a certain way. We would concentrate so hard on making the lines perfectly straight and the end result one we would be happy to present to the world, but only after we had erased any flaws and forgotten all mistakes. As adults we carry on much the same way, with the belief that the final Etch A Sketch masterpiece of our life should scream perfection before we let those around us see it. We grip those white little knobs for dear life, refusing to give up control, believing we alone decide which direction the next line will be drawn. In our ego centric state, we have no doubt we control our destiny.
And yet, in one swift move, with a shake here and a rattle there, it can all disappear. Worse yet…the Etch a Sketch we worked so hard to create, can suddenly look a whole lot different than what we ever imagined.
Maybe it’s time to start looking outside the confines of the Etch A Sketch and start living outside the box we have limited ourselves to…there’s a whole world out there full of possibilities to explore. Show the world your flaws. Its response may shake you up in ways you never imagined!
[…] Leah posted this on Monday, therein was the one line I needed to read that day and it stayed with me for the rest of […]
Oh Little Miss!!! How scary! I’m glad everyone is okay. I love the etch a sketch comparison. What a perfect visual.
Thank you. We all really do live in a bit of an etch a sketch don’t we?
I believe you are correct. We indeed are.
“Show the world your flaws!” I love that line.
Ready or not here I come! lol 🙂
I love it! 😀
I’m glad everyone was okay! Definitely a scary wake-up call. I’ve only been through one in PR a few years back…I hadn’t realized earthquakes ever happened there. I thought hurricanes were enough for PR!
Thank you. We had experienced a few smaller earthquakes in Ponce, but now we are in San Juan and in a high rise. I think the altitude combined with the magnitude of this quake made for a scarier experience! Hope you’ve been well!
Scary times! Glad you’re all alright and not suffering any damage.
I like your idea of letting go of the control and trying to live more freely 🙂
Thank you. It was such a weird feeling to literally feel the ground moving beneath us and our whole world shaking. Letting go of control is definitely easier said than done! 😉
Scary experience! Glad everyone was okay. I loved your analogy to the Etch a Sketch. It is so hard to let go of the controls in life!
Thank you. It was scary to feel such complete lack of control. All I could think of later when describing it was akin to an Etch A Sketch!
I’m glad you are safe from the quake, my friend. Etch a Sketch is a great tool for young people, LMW, because it teaches them the effectiveness of taking a straight line from one point to another. Age, however, leads children to the Spirograph and its lesson that curves and swerves can be very fruitful, too. Have a good week!
Thank you Mark! I loved my Spirograph, and can only hope I’m teaching my own children to embrace the curves, the swerves and the flaws! Life is much more colorful that way.
That must have been scary! Especially when in a high rise building! I live in a one story building and earthquakes scare the crap out of me. Glad you and your family are safe!
Thank you! We had experienced earthquakes here since we moved here, but not since living at the top of a high rise. It’s a whole other ballgame! I was terrified!
Are there news of a possibility of an aftershock? When we had a 7.2 out here we had hundreds of after shocks, not as strong but scary nonetheless. It was crazy!
Yes, we’ve had several but I really haven’t felt them. Thank goodness!
You always pull me in and make me read to the end! I am no stranger to be shaken like an Etch a Sketch! As you know from my own story! Always love your metaphors♡
😉
I do remember your story! I can’t begin to imagine what that felt like and how you got through it. Last night was so scary!