It is 630PM in Arizona and Earth Hour has just begun on the east coast of the United States.

The light inside the house grows darker than outside but I am keeping lights off. It is 92F (33C) degrees outside. I have all the windows open in the house. Fortunately, we are having a clear, breezy day. Typically with wind comes dust storms in the desert, more so the past 2 years. Even with all of the windows open, the house temperature is at 90F (30C) degrees. However, I am not going to turn on the A/C. There is enough clean air movement � sooo thankful � that it is unnecessary.

As I chop up the vegetables for tonight�s Quesadillas my mind decided to learn from the experience. I realized I needed to do this well in advance and have my station prepped while there was still natural light. That led to another realization. What was the last thing I wanted to do while natural light was still available? The answer really surprised me. I wanted to sterilize countertops and workstations with vinegar.

My brain pondered a question. �What if there was no electricity?� I started to view life accordingly. All of the vegetables and herbs used for dinner would have needed to come from my garden and not the refrigerator. I ran with the thought and asked myself what is the last thing I would do with electricity? Again, the answer surprised me! It was sterilize my dirty dishes in the dishwasher. While I cleaned and prepped for dinner, my eye caught the faint flickering of the landscape solar lights starting their gentle illumination for the evening.

I live in an area that has nothing for light pollution and without a full moon, it is �can�t see your hand in front of your face dark� outside. I find that I am particularly grateful for having these lights during Earth Hour and it makes me want to pursue more aggressively the solar power option. For if electricity did fall by the wayside I would still have access to the creature comforts of modern living without harming the planet.

This has already been an enlightening experience and it�s not even 830PM. I hope you will join me and power down for an hour today.

And the tallies are in!

A RECORD breaking 6,525 cities in 150 countries participated in Earth Hour in 2012! That is so out of this world awesome!

Thank you to all who participated. It was a much bigger eye opener than I was expecting - totally worth it!

Stop by and share your experiences. I'd love to hear about them. Until next 31 March - keep those lights on dim.

I celebrate our planet everyday so when Earth Hour arrives I do not participate so I do not sign the pledges for this. My dad is annoyed and my mom angry that I always close the lights of the rooms where noone is but I will continue doing this, not only does it help the environment it is also pointless to have a light on when noone is there.