Disaster preparedness may seem an odd topic for Nature Connected Life. However, I maintain that it is a natural result of spending time in nature. As campers, hikers, adventurers, and explorers we all know how quickly a situation can turn due to the weather around us. While a thunderstorm may not ruin our day when we're at home, it certainly can while we are away from shelter. This series will help you develop a preparedness philosophy so that you can help yourself, your family, and your community.
Prepper is a Dirty Word
If you have negative feelings towards the words prepper or prepping do yourself a favor and clean that slate. Carrying this weight will only hurt yourself. As people, we avoid becoming things we see portrayed negatively in the media. Thanks to shows like Doomsday Preppers the general populace thinks preppers are extremists. I want to help you rethink that.
What is Prepping?
The type of prepping Nature Connected Life advocates is one of wisdom, restraint, love, kindness, gentleness, and peace. This is not doomsday prepping. If you came here for fantasy, I hope that I will persuade you into a new approach. Disaster preparedness has two primary facets.
Philosophy for Disaster Preparedness
Just as critical as any physical items is our preparedness philosophy and mindset. Think of a fully stocked kitchen, all of the tools, food, and supplies to create unending meals. However, the chef who stands in the middle has never cooked a meal in their life. That person is mentally unprepared to accomplish any task in the kitchen, because they had not trained or thought through the necessary execution steps. The same thought and training should go into disaster preparedness.
Physical Supplies for Disaster Preparedness
Equally as unable to complete the aforementioned task is the chef who stands in a kitchen with no tools. They have all of the knowledge, but no way to complete what is required of them. In order to consider ourselves prepared we must gather or have access to any required supplies for a given situation. The time to buy Disaster Preparedness supplies is before, not after a disaster occurs.
Why Care About Disaster Preparedness?
We cannot always rely on others to be able to care for ourselves, our family, or our community during a disaster. Natural disasters such as hurricanes, tornados, floods, volcanic eruptions, earthquakes, or tsunamis can all render local aid inoperable for some amount of time. Whether that time period is 1 day, or 1 month, we would be wise to have mentally and physically prepared ourselves and our families. When we are not prepared, we actually stress the systems in place even more. Not everyone will prepare, but you can. With very little work, you can be the one who provides food, water, medical help, or information to your family and community. You can be the exception.