Everything comes with change. Whether it’s a new year coming along or a child getting a driver’s license or starting a new garden. Nothing ever stays the same. Everything has a season of beginning and ending. My daughter recently asked me whether or not I would be happy when all my children grow up and move out. While having slightly fewer interruptions would be wonderful, not having my children around me would be a very sad thing to me.
Well, just like everything else, this blog is going to change. I’ve loved the two years that I’ve been writing for it. I’ve learned so much from you all and grown so much from the writing and researching. This blog has forced me to put things into practice that I’ve known for years, but either haven’t been able to because we were renting or I didn’t because take the time to do so.
That being said, I’m not giving this up completely; it’s just going to change. I’m going to be starting a new blog in the new year. I’ll be posting here from time to time when it fits into my other blog. But with Christmas right around the corner and the fact that I’ll need to start writing on my other blog right after the first of the year, I need a little downtime.
This seemed to be the time to let everyone know what that change is coming, but not all change is for the worse.
With all that being said, I want to give you some thoughts as I wrap this blog up for the year.
My preparedness advice to everyone
1.) Start where you are.
There’s no perfect place from which to begin unless you’ve inherited a homestead and you’ve already been working it. Start from where you are. With what you have. Don’t wait for the perfect time. Don’t wait for the perfect location. Don’t wait for the perfect partner. Or having perfect knowledge. Start where you are.
2.) Don’t sweat the small stuff.
So much of what goes wrong now is small stuff. That’s why we’re preparing, right? Keep things in perspective. I’ve recently been watching Alone. It’s free on Amazon Prime. Ten people are dropped off on Vancouver island in various locations with a minimum of equipment, and they must survive alone. The person who lasts the longest gets $500,000!
Well in season one, a man loses his ferro rod. It’s how most of the people chose to start fires on the island. As soon as he realized that he’s lost his ferro rod, he gives up and leaves the island. Don’t get me wrong, not having a fire is a HUGE issue. Not being able to make fire is an even bigger issue, but he didn’t try to keep a fire going. He didn’t try other methods of starting a fire. He just gave up. It was bad, but it wasn’t the end of the world.
3.) Keep Going
Sometimes it’s easy to think that preparedness takes too much time. Just take it slow, but keep on going.
Earlier this year for three months in a row, I walked either just under or just over 50 miles over the course of a month. The problem was that as life really got busy, I couldn’t keep it up. Recently, I’ve started walking just 3/4 of a mile 4-5 days a week. It’s so much easier because it only takes 20 minutes, not 40-45 minutes. Why is less better? Because I can keep it up over a longer period of time.
4.) Take Time Off When You Need To
When life gets overwhelming, feel free to take time off. There’s a difference between the ability to keep going and taking a little time off when you need it. Our lives got so busy earlier this year when we were starting school, helping my mom and sister move, and finishing up stuff with the new house that my father-in-law purchased. We had NO TIME for preparedness, and that was OKAY.
5.) Love what you do!
If you can’t take joy in preparedness, then you’re not doing it right. A long time ago, I used to bake our own bread. All our own bread. I didn’t always enjoy the actual baking, but I LOVED the smell of freshly baked bread, and the taste of it was……..OH MY GOODNESS……..it was AMAZING! I might not have enjoyed the process, but I enjoyed the result of the process. Find something about preparedness that you LOVE and revel in that. It’s easier to do the other parts when you realize that you need to do them to get to what you really love!
What About You?
If you could give all my readers one piece of preparedness advice, what would it be? Share with us below in the comments so that we can all be better prepared.
Together lets Love, Learn, Practice, and Overcome
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