Will it take a wake up call?

I think many of us who are serious about homesteading, prepping, and being prepared do the best we can to put all of our time, energy, effort, study, and skills building toward that goal of sustainable living, life skills, back to the land,  and build our relationship with our creator.  However as serious as I would like to think that I am about all of this it only takes a wake up call to get some serious clarity, and realize just where I have fallen short and didn't have things in place that I really needed. 

So it made me ask the question why did it take a serious disruption to my life to get this clarity?  To suddenly see where I am way short of the goal, and not as prepared as I would like to think that I was.  Should it take a wakeup call before we get clear and concerned about these critical areas such as ensuring your water supply, food supply, energy and housing needs even if the SHTF and there isn't any income to support it? 

The reality is as long as we rely on "the economy" as a general system of things we are on life support.  We are like aliens just visiting the planet and we need to have air, and a hospitable environment provided for us so that we can live here.  It really does not have to be that way.   And each day we should be working toward the goal of not needing things from this "mirage" of prosperity based on a money system of debt, instability, and false promises.  We are only going to get hurt and hurt bad as we can clearly see that the music is going to stop for this mirage global economy as the printing presses lose their value and horrific events will result from it all as they try to find a way to save these global empires they have built. 

Now back to us.  Let's forget the global nonsense... You can think global, but act local... That is where the rubber meets the road.  It shouldn't have taken a wake up call in order to get clarity on what is most important and CRITICAL that I have in place.  But that is the place I find myself and seeing where I fell short and working very hard as we speak to try and correct what I can, but I realize I cannot overcome some of these things as it is just too late.  Now I get to live with the consequences of some of those choices, and lack of action.  If all goes well and I manage to land another decent paying job in my field I most certainly will have some projects lined up and an action plan that moves use quickly to fix these things that leave us in a compromised state.  If the job doesn't come along then get to learn the hard way how to become resourceful to meet these needs... Using things like Craiglist and Freecycle to reclaim and reuse things, and to barter and trade for what is needed.  One way or the other we will have to find a way to make these needed things happen.

My reason for posting this is to encourage you to ask yourself.  If your job went away today, or your retirement was suddenly wiped out or taken from you... And you had to live off of whatever you have right now could you do it?   What would you need to live off the resource you have right now?  While your thinking about it MAKE A LIST!  Where would you get your food?  Water? Energy? Heat?  The essentials to survive... What do you need to live and what do you need to do to ensure you have that? 

I know for myself I realize I am stuck in an urban environment as our off the grid location still lacks essential things like water, and a shelter that we won't freeze in during the winter.  IE some insulation, framing, and a wood stove.  So without those most basic things we have to stay put where we are in our urban setting.  Also we have not yet had the opportunity to begin planting or building garden beds.  That was slated for this year as I had been putting all my focus on our MO property and neglecting what I needed here in my urban location.  I had hoped that I could get those basics in place before anything happened... It was a bad choice in hindsight.  I was optimistic we would be able to move to MO before things got bad.  That left us unprepared in some basic ways in our urban location.  So now that my wakeup call has happened the scramble is on in our urban location to ensure that the basics are in place to bug out in place...

We talk about these things and try to prepare, but I think in some ways we get complacent and don't put the urgency and order of things together.  I should have had my stuff ready to go here in our urban location and then worked on the rural location as time and funds permitted.  So I am doing things here at the house that should have been done a few years ago such as planting fruit trees, shrubs, and bushes that take a few years to produce.  Had I done that a few years back we would have a living landscape this year to fall back on for food production.  I had every intention of doing just that and I let other things become the priority.  Funny how serious and intense things get when you suddenly realize just how much you need that. 

The morale of the story is if you don't think you have time to do all these projects it is time to think again.  If you don't think you really need to do it right now, and if everything you know right now was suddenly disrupted, would you then wish you had it done right now?   Move with a sense of urgency, and don't let anything get in your way.  Make your list of essential things you need.  Don't wait!  Tomorrow could look VERY different than today and not in a good way.  So take this serious so when your wakeup call comes your like... WHEW!  I am sure glad I took care of this stuff when I could!  I am here to tell you it sure beats struggling with the REGRET and battling to get past the areas that we fall short!

Take Care,  God Bless,
Longsnowsm