For close to twenty years, I have been teaching, writing about, and advocating for being prepared for all kinds of emergencies. It started when we moved to our place in the country in 1996. Battered by dozens of blizzards and an ice storm that left us without power for 10 days, the winter of '96-97 taught us how vulnerable we were to North Dakota's extremes. A few years later, my church leaders asked me to be the Preparedness Specialist for our region. As Preparedness Specialist, I've organized a half dozen preparedness fairs, where we bring in 25-30 experts to teach about what it takes to weather the unforeseen financially, physically, and emotionally. I've also taught dozens of classes and several webinars on different aspects of preparedness.
Why preparedness? Life is constantly throwing curve balls at us. I believe that the more prepared we are, the better we survive those curve balls. If there's anything we've learned in the last two years, it's that life can change in an instant and everything that we've come to expect and rely on can be turned on its head. You wake up one day and you have no income. You go to the store to see empty shelves. You are unable to be with family and friends. All in an instant.
But we can't prepare for every contingency. So, I prepare for the kind of crisis that I am most likely to encounter. I try to develop skills and attitudes that will get us through everything else. Not just me, but all those that I care about.
To most people Emergency Preparedness sounds a lot like prepper talk. You know: doomsday conspiracy predictions, a bunker filled with freeze-dried food, and a house-full of guns and ammo.
But I am not a prepper. At least not the doomsday, post-apocalyptic disaster kind of prepper. First, it's impossible to prep for everything you'd need in a Mad Max kind of world. And even if you could prep for a total apocalypse, what would you do about all your neighbors who haven't prepped for anything? How could I watch my neighbors starve while I sat in some secret bunker, eating a hot meal every day? Impossible.
So, I am a Grow-Your-Own-Fooder. Gardening is a great physical as well as mental exercise. And it gives us the world's best food. I never have to worry about food safety recalls, chemical residues on my food or empty grocery shelves.
I'm also a Putting-Byer. Like my grandmother, I have a room filled with jars of food that I've canned all summer long. When something goes on sale, I buy an extra one or two to have in reserve. If I buy enough when it's on sale, I don't have to buy it again until it's on sale again, so I'm saving money.
And I'm a Make-Doer. I can mend the living daylights out of my husband's work pants. And when my granddaughter has nothing to wear while at my house, I can quickly make her a shirt or dress from what I have on hand.
I'm an Unexpected-Guest-Welcomer. Living in the country, I can't run into town every time I'm one ingredient short for dinner. So, I have a well-stocked pantry. That means that I'm ready for any friends or family who drop by, even when it's dinner time.
And I am a Winter-Blizzard-Readyer. A North Dakota blizzard is serious business. We've seen way too many power outages to take winter weather lightly. We have enough chopped wood and ready-to-heat meals to see us through the worst storms.
Like the parable of the farm hand, I can sleep through the storm. There is a peace that comes from being resilient and self-reliant. This kind of preparedness doesn't come quickly. You can't just spend a couple thousand dollars and buy everything that you need to be prepared. It's not a garage full of food. It's a year-round process of learning and honing skills. It's a mindset, a perspective of being ready mentally and emotionally for anything. So, when the unthinkable does happen, it's not the end of the world.
This is a process I want to share with others. That's why I have a blog where I share what I am learning. In this blog, I've sorted all the things we can do to be prepared into monthly goals, little things we can do each month to be ready for some of the craziness of life. And now I'm happy to do the same for The Dakotan readers. Each week at The Dakotan, we'll look at one small thing you can do to be more prepared.
If you'd like to follow along with me, together we can all become more resilient and self-sufficient and hopefully be ready to help each other out for whatever craziness may come in 2022.
