Welcome back....to Living

I am leaving my first message in a long time here. Just recovering from knee surgery and my husband is doing much better, at least stable with his cancer..Talk about a survivalist, I give him a pat on the back for what he has endured the last few months. Especially the part where you are not sure you can swallow food again. He said to me again he really wants to start reading the Ham net so I am bringing up the link for him and hope he will get involved.

I think staying busy is what we all need...My Irish mom once said to me "Living is what you do while you are waiting to die". A very solemn saying which one can take as negative or that what Living is what you make of it as eventually we all do die. It tends to make one take a moment and say a much more tender phrase or lend a helping hand instead of being impatient or intolerant. We all have had our trials in life and I don't think anyone ever gets away without facing a few..even if a good period in our lives helps us forget those bad spots that we can even say.."nope..not me! or Better yet..Never again!" Then all of a sudden "It" happens.

Remember the old Fable taught to us as kids? The one where the grass hopper fiddled all Spring, Summer and Fall and then when winter came, he was begging for food and a warm place from his neighbors..It was easier to get the point then as kids think more simply (at least they did) that he not only didn't bother to work towards security when food was scarce like most lowly of insect does if not hibernate or a combination of the two..He laughed and scoffed when others said..Maybe its a good time to start putting some extra food away on a shelf in case you have a lean couple months. When I was a young wife and then military wife, I would buy beans and extra flour and "staples"...I get kidded about was I going into the bakery business or something like Better Crocker.. Sure they loved my cooking but they didn't even understand why bother making a bowl of soup when you can purchase it in a can at the store?? We didn't know much about the difference between home made and canned except it took longer and sometimes you just about broke even unless someone suddenly gave you a basket of apples, or tomatoes or other items.

I read Mother Earth News in the 70s and just took it for what it was that there could be other ways to live not just because they were simpler but you didn't have to give half you pay check to the electric company...By the time I was ready to have children..my husbands career, and then the "standard of living" stated you could not bring up kids in a house that had less than for windows and two doors and indoor pluming. Oil lamps were considered fire hazards, Mind you some people here still live with well water and lanterns, and because they are grand parents or native or by some long shot of the imagination their families lived generations in the boonies (Are there any real boonies anymore?) you could get in trouble for not having the best in modern living... I had a couple friends who had to give up their dream of a house without electric because they could not have children there. Yet these were capable, educated persons who wanted to give up their city jobs and go back to living like their grandparents' parents.

Then suddenly it became interesting to have solar power..or earthen houses...it was quaint if you could build it off some dirt road on your back 40 or you had the money to invest in a solar powered system that were still in the trial and error stages. Not that they are not improving every day, just not cost effective for the average home owner. Unfortunately they were not worth the work until the cost of utilities got ridiculously high. This made utility companies less fearful of these alternative lovers, and figured it was just a fad. This leaves a further point..should the price go up before all the gas or oil is gone, or now so we can start working towards a transition? Nobody likes paying more, but every small increase, people just seemed to take it in strides till we had a super big hike in the cost of things we use.

Then to find out some of those bargain goods were not good to live in (wall board) eat or drink out of (earthen ware with lead) or even toys our kids would teeth or suck on... Our kids used to get rag or corn dolls, then plaster head dolls with bodies made of corn sacks. If a kid was lucky he got a rocking horse handed down or made by grandpa..wow. A bicycle was probably the
pull mule, and if a family could afford a bike, it usually was for delivering newspapers or getting to school on time. We actually had bike racks at school and you could park your bike without having to lock it to the holder! (Imagine that!)
Maybe all those things we used to make do with made us appreciate people more, or even think how lucky we were to have elder persons around making us a warm hat and scarf, warm and glad we had them. The family pet was with us its whole life and even most times served a purpose..Intruders, scavenger animals, warmth in the winter, or even to keep mice from eating next seasons grain.
So what dose all this have to do with being a prepper? I think alot..Its about humanity and having a reason to work towards a common goal and caring as well as preparing for what ever may come your way. With that I will say thanks for being there when you can and if you can't then pass it forward in the future. You know what I mean.
I always wanted to be one of those person who wanted to just ride the bus from one end to the other, and each time some young person in trouble couldn't find their bus money, I would put it in for them. When they said thanks, I would tell them to pay it forward.
One day I was waiting outside this church after finishing a participation class. That day I was catching a bus home when this man come struggling out with a box of food he could barely carry. He stopped for a moment and said it was a warm day..I agreed and took it upon to ask him where he was headed and he said "Downtown and then I have to catch a bus to the other side of the city". It was already late afternoon and if he walked downtown he would miss the line up and have to get home in the dark late if he were lucky... I started fishing out my money and seeing if I had enough for myself and asked..if you miss this bus coming you probably will miss the line up. He said yeah, but my family needed food and I dont have a car, so this is the way it has to be. I pulled out my change and put my bus money in a separate pocket and then went through and found him enough to get down town...He literally got a tear of joy.."You dont know how much I would have to walk and then looking in the bottom of my purse came up with the extension..he offered me some food...I said No thanks..just get the food home to your family..He asked what he could do in return...I told him someday you can do a favor for someone else. He smiled as our bus pulled up and at down town he went his way and I went my way..He felt compelled to tell me thanks again for $1.25 cents. I just smiled and said "good night"...

I hope all who happen to come along and read this or just happen to be passing someone on their trip through life. I hope your able to help someone too. Thanks for making me feel at home here at the Preppers network and I love all the messages I have read and the inspiration I had to continue on with a more positive attitude on life.

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