What Am I Preparing For?

 

About a month ago a friend of mine looked at my LTFS and asked me “Is there something I need to know?”  In essence, she wanted to know if I was preparing for anything in particular and should she be doing the same.  Preparedness is a very personal journey.  We all prepare ahead for various reasons based on what is going on or could possible go on in our own lives.  For me, I’ve always tried to be as prepared as possible in case money got tight.  All my adult life I was always concerned about job loss or an unexpected expense that could turn my finances completely upside down.  When you are raising children that are totally dependent upon you for pretty much everything, it feels all that more real to you.  So what am I preparing for now?

 

I’m going to be completely honest with you.  The pandemic of 2020 has had an everlasting effect on me.  Watching grown adults in Fred Meyer strip the shelves bare and fight with each other over items the other one had in their heaping shopping carts was an eye opening experience I’ll not soon forget.  Care, concern and helping out your fellow man was completely out the window.  The “every man out for themselves” mentality was on full display and I found it beyond shocking.  I had never seen anything like it and I was not at all prepared for what I saw.  I was so disgusted with those people and what I saw that I left the store empty handed and went directly home.  I don’t ever want to experience that again.

 

What happened that day, March 13^th, 2020, scared me because I saw human beings acting in ways that were not very humane and I simply was not prepared for that behavior.  It proved to me what I feared the most about the human race.  Fear makes people into animals.  Since that day I decided to up my game so my family would be better protected.

 

Couple that previous experience with my own research into what constitutes as “food” these days has made me want to up my game even further.  I don’t want to eat chemicals, preservatives, additives, fillers, genetically modified, enriched, emulsified, reconstituted, flavored, dyed, artificial, synthetic, flavored, lab created or engineered anything.  I firmly believe that whenever you mess with the natural order of things you create more problems than you could ever possibly solve.  I also firmly believe that the mass consumption of the ultra processed grocery items that pass for “food” is what is causing the vast majority of health issues and the obesity, epidemic.  It would not surprise me if it also is a leading cause of most of the mental and developmental disorders we see today.  Our bodies were never designed to eat this stuff.

 

By growing, sourcing and preserving as much of my food as I can I feel like I can better control what is in it.  By keeping a good supply of that food on hand, both frozen and shelf stable, I can easily feed myself good nutritional meals.  By keeping a two year supply on hand at all times that I can rotate through and replace as I use it I feel I can safely weather whatever comes my way.

 

While I no longer fear job loss or financial worries while raising a family I do have concerns that at anytime we may face another pandemic (COVID is still around) and that our government would lock us down again.  To me that is a real possibility.  I have no control over the weather and it is reasonable to assume that we could have another snowpocalypse again.  An unexpected expense or illness is also one of those things I do like to try and prepare ahead for.  Anything can happen that could affect our supply chain – crop failure, trucking strikes, inclement weather, etc.  I have zero control over my fellow man so whatever might upset them and cause them to behave badly is something I hope to avoid as best I can.  If I need to stay home for a long period of time to stay safe and well, regardless of the circumstances, then I know that I can do that without a problem.

 

With all of that being said I do not go about my days fearing the worst.  I’d much rather prepare and not need it than need it and not be prepared.  I am always optimistic and hopeful that my fellow man will surprise me and that people will be able to learn from the past and be better for it.  I have faith in God and I pray that our future will be good no matter what the outcome of future events and that our leaders will lead and protect us rather than succumb to war and carnage.  I want to live out my days the best I can with little worry and much joy.  That is what I am preparing for.