Category: Preparedness

If ever there was a year to prepare,
THIS IS IT!

alternate title:

We have front row tickets for the greatest show on earth,
coming soon to a planet near you. Watch for it this December!

Attitude, viewpoint, sense of humor, supplies, intent -
these are the things that carry people through when the going gets tough.

And "tough"? Who SAYS it has to be TOUGH? It's all in your viewpoint.

To some, spending a day with thousands of people, eating cotton candy, hotdogs and sodas, and going on lots of rides with the kids at Disney World is "tough". It sure isn't "tough" for the kids though, is it? Of course not! Attitude is everything, and the kids are the ones with the great attitude here.

What about people who lost power for DAYS back east this past winter? There were those that suffered, and were miserable, and who had nothing to eat and no way to heat the bit of food they did have, so they got a cold or the flu and then suffered some more.

Then there were those who had supplies – they HAD their Porta Chef stove and fuel, had their solar/hand crank lanterns (and had charged them up every 3 months like they should), had their radios, and lots of food (including snack type things for the kids, and chocolate for the mom). They had juice boxes for the kids and a case of wine in the basement. They had previously purchased a Monopoly game, and Twister, and some cards. They bought other (non-noise making – a very important point) games that the kids could play when the computer was down, they couldn't do instant-messaging or texting and the TV didn't work.

To these people, it was an unexpected VACATION from work or school. It was a time to reconnect with the family members, to catch up on reading, to just sit and watch the snow fall outside the living room window. These people actually had (gasp!) FUN!

And it was fun all because they had the intent to weather any storm and they had put away supplies, a little at a time, like the wise ant.

Compared to the potential "End of the World As We Know It", Y2K was a no thing. With Y2K, sure all the computers were supposed to stop working, making bad things happen, like the traffic lights not working in New York, Chicago or LA, planes falling out of the sky, no electricity and no stores. But it also had the potential to make good things happen - my mortgage is wiped out, my credit card bills wiped out, and I'd have time to read all those books I bought but have been too busy to read.

But now, it is 2012 and we're talking about the potential "End of the World As We Know It" happening in what? 11 months?

First off, are we sure it is going to be a "bad" thing as opposed to a "good" thing? Granted, we have heard some pretty gnarly scenarios. But no, we are not sure. And that "not sure" part seems to bother quite a few people. I say, that's a lot of wasted energy that could be better utilized. If you worry HARD enough and LONG enough, and if you focus A WHOLE BUNCH on bad crap that could befall you, GUESS WHAT????? You will be very efficiently magnetizing all that bad crap to meet up with you later this year and into next.

So let's cut out all that crazy worrying, and look at what CAN be done, month by month, week by week, so that when we end up in December of 2012, we will be only a little concerned, and mainly prepared with our supplies, our intent, our super improved sense of humor and our polished up attitudes. Then we can be pretty darn excited, because we are actually going to see some amazing, awesome, powerful, incredible things and come out on the other side unscathed.

We DO have seats on the 50 yard line (for you football folks). We DO have front row seats for the Big Event. If what is going to happen is SO big that entities/ships have been arriving for some time now and the place is like a packed parking lot up there, aren't we pretty darn happy we have these front row seats?

We do NOT prepare out of fear. It's kind of like looking forward to Christmas and Christmas morning when you were 5 or 6 years old.

All year long we collect things that would make great presents for our loved ones at Christmas. Do we do that from a place of fear? No we do not. We do it from a place of LOVE so that it will make Christmas special for everyone involved.

So preparing for 12/21/2012 and whatever may happen can be done in the spirit of Love and Anticipation of Excellent Things (you just don't know what those things are – like you don't know what is in the wrapped presents under the tree, but you're not afraid of those presents).

Yesterday I had a great talk with Jan of the MastersConnection about writing a series of articles on preparing for TEOTWAWKI - that is the acronym for The End Of The World As We Know It, pronounced, at least in my head, as TAY-o-TWA-kee (the second 'w' is silent).

Jan was thinking it would be a great idea for me to do a series of articles for the MastersConnection throughout 2012, with each month having a different area of focus. I thought this was a great idea and agreed to do it.

I will be covering topics such as Water, Food, Medical Supplies, Gardening Implements and Seeds, Neighborhood Communications, and more. This month will be WATER: how to store it, filter it, why you want plenty, how to clean barrels, what to put in water, etc.

I know that there are some of you who have been preparing for a long time, some who know about it but have little in place and then there are those who are not sure where to start, so I'll do my best to cover all of you.

If you have specific questions or circumstances that you'd like to see addressed, you can email the MastersConnection or leave a comment below, and wait for the story to come out – kind of like writing Dear Abby.

There also may be individuals that have all of their own preparedness ducks in a row, but who would like to add extra items to their storage that could be used to help others should the need arise. Examples of this would be extra water filters, food or medical supplies. Anyone interested in this type of thing can email me or give me a call. Confidentiality is absolute.

The "Preparedness 2012" series kicks off next week, right here in the MastersConnection. So stay tuned....

Teri Simpson
Optimum Preparedness
www.OptimumPreparedness.com