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  • Preparedness Is The Ultimate Act Of Optimism

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    Not having immediate access to all of your important information in the event of unexpected loss of your home or a sudden death.  Not having this information often results in chaos, causes additional losses and disruption and hinders your ability to get your life back on track. The stories of families who had to start over after recent storms and fires are in our memories and serve as a reminder that unexpected events can cause sudden and extreme shifts in our lives. During those crisis moments, when time is precious, prompt, easy access to your financial, insurance and other information is a necessity and extremely valuable.

    By Daisy Luther

    Does this sound familiar?

    You’re talking to a friend or family member who isn’t on board with preparedness. (And it’s even worse when they think they know what’s going on in the world but garner their so-called “information” from network news sources.) You try for the millionth time to get them to consider stocking up on a few things and they say this:

    Life’s too short for all of this doom and gloom. Live a little! You’re such a pessimist!

    My response to this is that preparedness is the ultimate form of optimism.

    One who practices skills, makes dramatic lifestyle changes, and studies current events critically may come across to the uninitiated as a person who has buried himself or herself in negativity, but in fact, one who prepares is saying to life, “Whatever comes, we are not only going to live through it, my family is going to thrive, and I will not bend my knee to tyranny for an MRE and a bottle of water.”

    I think that methods of preparedness can be compared to love songs on the radio. Bear with me through this analogy.

    If the songs that make you think of your significant other are sad, with reference to breaking up and getting back together, unsatisfied yearnings, arguments, frustration, anger, and broken hearts, you just might be doing the whole “love” thing wrong. Shouldn’t the song that makes you think of the one you love be happy, upbeat, full of joy? Shouldn’t thoughts of that special someone make you more prone to goofy smiles and a warm glow than to melancholy longing or the urge to gleefully burn all of their belongings in a great pile in the front yard?

    It’s exactly the same with preparedness. Thoughts of your plans, your lifestyle, and your loaded pantry room should give you a sense of peace and security. If your state of preparedness makes you feel unhappy, stressed, angry, or resentful, you’re doing something wrong.

    Here are some examples of how prepping is pure, unadulterated optimism:

    • Your area is under a severe storm warning. While everyone else you know is rushing to the store and knocking over old ladies to clear the shelves, you’re tying down some outdoor furniture, filling the bathtubs with water, bringing in some extra firewood, cooking up some stuff that would be likely to go bad during an extended power outage, and getting the candles and lanterns ready. Perhaps you are discussing with your kids why you’re doing what your doing and using it as a teachable moment. There is no panic, only the peace of mind you feel when you don’t have to try to get things that everyone else is trying to procure at the exact same frenzied moment.
    • During this hypothetical storm, the power goes out for two weeks, water is under a boil order, and trees are down everywhere. You remain in the safety of your home with your family, not risking downed power lines and falling branches from storm-damaged trees. You heat up hearty meals using off-grid cooking methods with which you are already familiar. You spend the two-week break playing boardgames, reading books, doing art projects. You have plenty of food, plenty of water, and plenty of light. To your kids, this is an adventure, and to you it’s a little break from your regular work and from technology.
    • Heaven forbid that you should lose your job, but if you did, you have the security of a supply of food to see you through. You know how to grow your own food to supplement this supply because you’ve been doing it for years. You know a million different ways to do things manually and save yourself money. While a loss of income is a crisis, for someone who has readied themselves for the possibility, it could also be an opportunity to seek a new job, to homeschool the kids, to start a business of their own. If they don’t feel that horrible sense of desperation, realizing that the mortgage payment is coming up in 3 weeks, and they don’t have the money to pay it, the utilities are already close to being cut off, and there are 3 slices of bread in the house, with two of them being the crusty heels that nobody wants to eat, then the person is a little more free to search for the silver lining.
    • One fine summer day when you are enjoying a barbecue at a friends house, you listen to other folks complaining about the cost of produce at the grocery store due to the droughts and poor growing conditions across the country. You realize that you haven’t purchased a single vegetable since your spring lettuce and peas prolifically came in, and you had absolutely no idea that everyone else was paying double or triple what they paid last year for a bag of baby spinach or a pound of tomatoes.
    • If someone you know falls on hard times, you are always able to lend a hand with a bag full of groceries that came directly from your pantry. You don’t even have to think twice about helping out, because you are prepared for the long haul.

    Make sure to read the rest of the article at Naturalblaze.

    Source

    Staff Writer

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