Waiting on crisis or living in the moment?

Welcome to another installment of the Be Prepared Channel. Today I would like to touch on something that has been eating at me for a while and just seems to be something that needs to be said about modern society and the way we live. Our culture seems to move from crisis to crisis. Those that are "in charge" seem to be the ones that benefit from living this way. They never let a good crisis go to waste and use them to manipulate society for their own agenda. They don't seem to like it when we become aware of this crisis trap and realize just how dependent we are on the "systems of today's society" and start to think outside the box. We start looking at ways to reduce our dependence on those that use crisis management to further their own goals and this appears to upset the puppet masters.

Crisis as a Tool:

Today's puppet masters aren't bashful about admitting that they should never let a good crisis go to waste. They use these crisis to further agendas and expand their influence and dependence. The deeper we get into our cycle of dependence the more we are affected by the next crisis. The current administration isn't all that different from previous administrations except they are very bold about admitting they are using crisis to get things done by scaring the heck out of people and offering their solutions as the answers to problems... Sometimes these problems are created by the very people that are offering the solutions to the crisis. You name it healthcare, environment, war, food shortages, water shortages, energy shortages they seem to be ready to offer solutions to these crises.

So we have to ask the questions about the outcomes of the crises, and the solutions being offered. Do any of these solutions help us become more independent? Do any of the solutions provided enable people? or does it stand to enable those offering the solutions? Centralizing resources even further? Are we stronger and more able to withstand further crisis and issues as a result of the solutions offered? Only you can answer these questions.

Crisis Management?

One of the problems with the prepper or survivalist movement seems to be that many people are waiting for the crisis and their preps are focused on a day in the future when they will enact their plan, and take action and draw on their preps and supplies. Well I hate to break to to you but maybe we are banking on a crisis, and waiting for the opportunity for our own solutions. Maybe we are sitting waiting for our dependence on the system to reveal the major problems of our society and somehow we will be vindicated in our preparations and our planning. What makes us any different than those puppet masters? Yes, we are small scale and they are doing things on a major scale, but really isn't crisis management what we are talking about? Maybe we are focused on the wrong things if that is our thinking.

Living in the moment

Maybe the questions we should be asking come from observing our daily lives and recognizing our dependencies on "the systems of today"? Shouldn't we be looking at the ways we are dependent on these systems and asking ourselves what we should and could be doing about it? Crises create an atmosphere of fear and upset the apple cart because of our dependence on outside systems that are beyond our area of observation and control. We can live in a state of fear and reliant on systems that are outside our local communities, neighborhoods, and on our own properties or we can change the way we think, shop, and live.

Living in the moment means we recognize our own weaknesses and change those things that leave us vulnerable. Adjusting our daily living now and not waiting for a crisis is living in the moment. By living in the moment we change our mindset from living in fear of crisis to truly living. We can start to live in abundance, and start to enjoy life by moving from a mindset of fear to a mindset of independence. We can live an exciting and vibrant life if we choose to. I touched on going "old school" in a previous blog post. The very basis of old school is self reliance, and sustainability. It is a start and a way we can begin this transition to life. We can seek out others with similar goals locally that can help us achieve our own living in the moment lifestyle.

Waiting for tomorrow or living in the moment?

Living in the moment starts with you and your family. Your own home and your assessment of your dependencies will help you develop an inventory of things you need to do, things to have, things to know. Remember our Rules of 3? Think about your water, food, and shelter security and what you can do personally to address these areas. Get out of the shopping mindset and start thinking sustainable living. You can buy supplies until your purple in the face, but at some point your supplies will run out. Next after you have done a personal inventory and started to make changes in your own home look to see where you will need help. Then start seeking out others in your area that might be able to help you. You can find other like minded people on internet forums that may be in your area. Go to local farmers markets and start to build relationships with your local farmers. Seek out local farmer CSA's(Community Supported Agriculture) and get your name in the hat to become a member of a local CSA. Only by building community and taking action today can we minimize our dependence on systems of control that are outside our areas of influence and we can begin to live... Truly live.

I am very guilty of sitting around and planning for tomorrow and frankly that is very limiting and unfulfilling. We can live in the moment while focusing on our rules of 3 and the principals of preparedness in our daily lives. These are not exclusive of each other. Maybe it is an act of faith, or believing... Believing is a verb which ca-notes action. Stepping out on our beliefs so that we can live will open doors and paths for us. Now is the time to take those steps. We might be surprised where it takes us which is all part of the excitement and journey.

There are those that seek to keep us in fear. To keep us dependent upon them for everything. A large part of Being Prepared is taking steps today to address those dependencies and to ensure that we have done what we can to minimize our own disruptions when TSHTF. It really is our choice. Do we buy supplies and preps planning for TEOTWAWKI as we wait or do we start to take steps today to live. We can thrive even in a TEOTWAWKI scenario even as the rest of the world loses it's mind. If we learned our old school lessons today and have built our relationships locally we can offer solutions to those that will be waking up to the trap of "Crisis Management". Will you choose today to live? to be part of the solution?

The Dependency Transition

1. Water Plan

2. Food Plan

3. Shelter Plan

4. Security

5. Community Plan

What is your plan for each of these areas? Start small, keep it simple. Trust me it gets complicated all by itself without us trying to make it complicated. Incorporate each of these things in your daily life and not just getting stuff to sit on shelf in your bunker! You have heard by now "Store what you eat, and eat what you store". The transition from "buy and store" to a live, learn, and use it mentality is how we transition from dependency to independence. Consider your source and how sustainable things are. Can you grow it? Do you have a local source for it? How badly do you really need it? All questions we must ask if we are going to transition to living in the moment and in abundance...

Homestead Independence?

As we get through the hurdles of getting our homestead purchase completed I will be sharing with you some of our transition plan and what we are doing to address the dependency crisis cycle. Lets see what we can do together. I have some plans for the blog, podcast, and other things as we get things moving. It will be a month or two before things start to settle around here, but I will try to keep you posted on our developments. Needless to say some very exciting things are happening and I can hardly wait to share it with you. Hopefully we can learn together as we go!

God Bless,

Longsnowsm