The lights have been off in my house. I just turned my laptop on using the battery only because everything is still unplugged: alarm clocks, baby monitors, the coffee maker, cell phone chargers, the microwave. We haven’t turned the lights back on yet either. There’s a candle burning on the table in front of me, and everything is very quiet. No television. No music. Just the tapping of my keyboard in the almost dark. That’s the point of Earth Hour, of course. The annual event is always the last weekend in March so that post-daylight savings 8:30 start time is typically dark outside. Lights go off, and Mother Earth sighs in relief. It’s a world-wide event now. So all day somewhere across the globe, some time zone had people sitting in the dark. Turning off my lights means I’m not using as much electricity, so I’m supporting the environment and taking a stand against climate change. What a simple thing to do. And it’s only for an hour. In 2011, “hundreds of millions of people across 135 countries switch off for an hour.” Even more participants were expected in 2012 for the annual stand against global warming.

Jason and I played Banagrams by candle light on the screened-in porch, which we thought was the perfect excuse to pour a drink. Lovely.

How did you spend your Earth Hour?