Thoughts on Ebola

Ebola.  Just the word itself sounds scary.  There has been a lot of stuff written on it.  It is hard to figure out what is 'real', what is 'sensational', and what is 'unfounded'.  Needless to say, I will not be writing about ebola itself.  You'll have to do your own research and figure out what you think the truth to be.  But, whatever the truth, however it got here, regardless of what I believe, or you believe our government should be doing to contain such a disease, the simple fact remains....ebola is here.

A wee bit of a wake up call.  I've said it before, but I feel that we as Americans are very much like teenagers....we feel nothing bad can happen to us.

So if I am not going to be writing about ebola itself, then what am I going to write about?  To share my heart.  To tell others that if it's not ebola, it will be T40Z-3Y (I'm making things up here, but just go along with it), or Goozy-bola, or some other infection on the horizon.  We've already seen some doozies, and I have a feeling this won't be the last of them.

We have lived sheltered lives here in America.  But, it would take but a talk with our great-grandparents (if they were still living) to know that our easy lifestyles were not the norm, not 100 years ago. Nor are they the norm for most of the world.  It is sobering to think that we fall into the top 3 or 5% of the world as far as wealth goes.  Our grandparents and parents worked hard to give us a life of ease.  It was out of love for us that they did that.  However, it may very well be our downfall.

This is where my heart comes in.  I know I am not alone in this, but more people need to jump on the bandwagon...the bandwagon to self sufficiency.  If you found out that ebola was in your city, what is your plan?  Can you get out?  Can you hunker down and stay indoors until the threat has passed?  Again, even if we were able eradicate ebola from the US, it will be another disease next year.

And if it isn't disease, it could be a natural disaster, a job loss, an injury that keeps you out of work.  The list is long.  These are not (ok, some of them have been featured on Doomsday Preppers) the material of the tin hat crowd. These are things that we all have the potential to face in our future.  Every state has their own weaknesses, each family does as well.  We most certainly can not prepare for every possible scenario that may come our way.  But we should, indeed, start with things that have a high likelihood, or possibility.

We have bad weather forecast for tomorrow morning, with chances of tornadoes.  We have been told to expect an even colder winter than last years, in our state.  There are new, or not so new, diseases coming across our boarders.  The fact of the matter is that we all have the responsibility to prepare., to provide for our families, to involve our neighbors and community.  There are countries who have gone before us, coming to ruin.  And though the situations were very, very hard, they pulled through.  But those that have come to the other side all feel that if we (the USA) were to go through the same thing, that they feel we would not make it.  We do not have the mentality to band together, to support each other. I do hope they are wrong. I want to believe that if the going got tough the the strong would help the weak.

I've been mulling over some ideas of how to share how to do this.  On the one hand, it isn't rocket science, but on the other, it can be very overwhelming.  Just take a moment to think about how prepared you would be if you had to stay put in your house for 3 months without being able to leave.  No grocery runs.  No going out to a movie.  No going to the gym.  Diapers?  Toilet paper?  Water?  Food?  Entertainment?

Now, we've been doing a wee bit of prepping here and there. We have some animals.  We are attempting to learn new skills.  But when I honestly took stock of what it would look like to have to stay put, here in our house, for three months?  Hmmm, there are holes, and lots of them.  As my husband is fond of saying, "Well, at least we are better off than most people."  That is true.  But do I just want to be better off?  Or do I want to actually be prepared?  Fully prepared?

I'm thinking of making a youtube channel just to share what we are learning, and what we are doing here to be prepared...for the everyday things.  This will most certainly NOT be Doomsday Preppers!  My hope is to encourage others to take a step.  My hope is that others will be inspired to just do the next thing, as small as that may be.  Hey, I remember how I felt when all I could afford was one bag of rice and two bag of beans to put towards my food storage. And I am *not* talking about the 50 pound bags either!  I'm talking the one pound bags.  I put it on my shelf and I wasn't sure if I should be proud for taking that first step, or to cry to see a 'measly' 3 pounds of food meant for future food storage.  But we ALL have to start *somewhere*.

I am not an expert on any of this.  Not at all.  Personally, I like to see 'real' people, and how they make things work. And trust me, this will be 'real'.  As in, I will show you how we started, and ALL of the lovely mistakes we've made, what we need to change and the plans that I still have to see our preparedness go to the next level.  We are sooooo far from being able to live off grid, it's not even funny.  I really can't see us ever being there...on purpose anyways :-)  But come on now, we've only lived with electricity but for a 'blink of an eye' compared to all of known humanity.  I know we could do it again, if we had to.  I myself, like a nice cool, air conditioned house when it is 100 degrees outside.  I don't have plans to give that up at the moment.  But there are things, no matter where you live, you can do to be a bit better off if hardship comes your way.

Now, before I go, I do want to slip a little something in here about ebola.  You know I love homeopathy.  Homeopathy has a wonderful record of helping during times of epidemics.  It won't hurt to have some remedies on hand that some homeopaths believe may address this particular ebola threat.  I plan on adding more to this list when I learn more.  For now, if you go HERE, you can find one of the protocols are for this outbreak.  I am awaiting word from our homeopath to see what he recommends.