What if there is a tornado & your house is destroyed? What if the United States (or your country, if you live elsewhere) is invaded & overtaken by an un-named enemy? What if a huge earthquake destroyed everything within twenty five miles of your home? Tsunami? EMP attack? Pandemic? What if, what if, what if….
A lot of people have a lot of ideas about “the end of the world,” or the apocalypse, or whatever you want to call it. These huge catastrophes seem to be the focus of a lot of discussion. While I recognize that global, national & regional disasters are possible, the likelihood of them affecting your life is much less than the possibility of a much smaller, and more personal disaster affecting you.
Consider unemployment for a moment. What would you do it you lost your job? There are many people across America & abroad who have lost what they once considered to be secure jobs. Businesses are struggling, making cuts, and many are closing their doors forever. Do you have a backup plan? If your backup plan consists of living off of unemployment checks, I’d recommend that you work on a better one.
Long term illness, injuries leading to disability, who knows what the future holds for us? Many things can happen without notice that could change our lives forever. Bad things happen to good people every single day. Some could be catastrophic for your family if you aren’t prepared. While it is not realistic to think that we can be fully prepared for every possible situation, we can look at family preparedness in a more holistic manner. When discussing preparedness, I have heard people say “Once you know how to swim, it doesn’t matter how deep the water is.” (I think that came from James Talmage Stevens, but I’m not sure.) In other words, if you have developed a lifestyle of preparedness, then the particular type of disaster becomes much less important.
Our nation used to be composed mostly of people who were much more self-sufficient than we are today. Very few people grow ANY of their own food. Some don’t even know how to cook without a microwave, and get most of their meals from eating out. Although I have seen an increase in the number of people that are starting gardens, learning to can, and storing food for their families, the majority of Americans don’t concern themselves with such things.
Everyone seems to be more concerned with getting more. A bigger television, a nicer car, a bigger house, boat, whatever. Too many people are buying everything they possibly can on credit, assuming that life is going to just keep going the way it always has. They seem oblivious to what is going on around them. They don’t seem to see the 6 houses with a few blocks of them that have been foreclosed on. They’ve forgotten about their friend or family member that just lost their job without warning. Or the one that lost their spouse in a car accident, and now they can’t support the family alone.
You don’t have to be an expert in anything to realize that things are changing. The prosperity that our country once enjoyed is gone. I believe that there are many more changes coming, and that times are going to become more difficult for everyone. Those who fail to see what’s going on around them are not going to be prepared, and their families will suffer the most as these changes occur. I don’t believe that the world is going to end in 2012, or anytime soon. I do believe that we as individuals, families, and as a nation, are going to have to make some significant changes in our lives if we are to survive what the future holds for us all.
On a brighter note – we can all do things to become more self-sufficient. We can work toward preparing ourselves, and our families for all of the disasters that we will face, large & small. Learn to produce some of your own food. Learn how to store some food for a time when you may not have as much as you do now. Learn a new skill that can help your family in some way in leaner times. Learn to fix something around your house that’s broken, instead of throwing it away, or paying someone else to fix it.
Maybe I’m wrong. Maybe we are on the threshold of the greatest prosperity our nation has ever known. It’s possible that all of those fine individuals we call politicians are going to turn things around & make the world a better place for us all. Yeah, right…. I don’t want to bet the survival of my family on the competence of those people, based on their track record.
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