to have Courage....In Family Life, In Spirituality, In Health, In Living Simply

I'm on a journey...... as we all are. Learning, remembering, re-discovering about health, spirituality, relationships, emotions and the mind.

Monday, March 21, 2011

In Light of The Past Week

What a devastation in Japan.  Words can't express what many feel for the loss.  Pictures make my heart pain, my eyes water, my mouth drop open.  What can one say?  My heart goes out to those who have lost loved ones, lost homes, lost whole communities, lost faith in those whom they trusted. 



As shocked as we are in the west to hear of Japan's devastation, we move on with our lives.  To blog even seems so.......disrespectful.  So......insignificant.  But the reality is we don't have the rubble and the mud and dead bodies and the radiated water & food to deal with.  We have concern.  We can send aid. Some people can physically go and help, either immediately or in the future (or both).  But for most of us, we continue on with life as we basically know it.  Somehow effected by world events but otherwise Same-Old.

Van Gogh



This week a fair share of my attention has been focused on what's been happening concerning the Fukishima nuclear plant in Japan and keeping abreast of news coming out of there.  News seemed to change once Obama basically told the US citizens "Don't Worry; Be Happy.  Watch the news and go on with life because we're all safe and sound."  But I still keep abreast of the news thru Natural News.  Independent news.  I like that.



I suppose in a sense, we have gone on with Life As Normal (in the shadow of the heartbreak for the Japanese).  'Life is Educational' is our philosophy, so we talked about earthquakes, tsunamis, nuclear power plants, iodine, sea vegetables, contamination, radioactive particles binding with cells in our body, geography, jet streams, miracles, etc.  A real hodge-podge!

Trying to deal with the news at hand in a non-fear-mongering way can be a challenge, particularly when sharing that news with a wide age-span of children. I didn't want the children to be fearful, or have their sleep disturbed (so far so good).  We wanted to cover the news and evaluate our family's preparedness in case of a catastrophe.  Hopefully things will get under hand in Fukishima, Japan.  Yet, that won't eliminate possible nuclear or other types of catastrophes, both natural and man-produced, that any of us can succumb to.   Are we prepared in case of those?  Some fore-thought is better than ignorance and/or panic.  Panic really serves nobody well.  If anything it is more detrimental than beneficial.

I don't know about you, but I don't look to my own government for the well-being of my family, and I most certainly don't look to the US government for sound advice. I think we ought to grow up knowing to take care of ourselves and others, rather than expecting some other identity to do that for us.  I've heard over and over that by the time we are forty years old, we should have gathered enough information so that we are able to take care of ourselves.  That means we should know enough about how our own body works, how to mend it, how to deal with injury, how to fend for ourselves.  And know how to assess a real emergency.

CHEERS, to taking Responsibility


3 comments:

  1. I've just recently read "Independence Days: A Guide to Sustainable Food Storage & Preservation" by Sharon Astyk. It opened my eyes to how unprepared most people (us included) are for the unexpected. Grocery stores have about 3 days of food supplies?! Yikes! Well, I found the book gives very insightful advice and supports sustainable living. I think you'd like this book. (I got it at the library).
    Christine

    ReplyDelete
  2. Thanks for the Book Recommendation. I'll check to see if our local library carries the book.

    I know that we virtually always have way more food supply for our family than a store carries. And that is without a big freezer full of stuff. We don't own a freezer and have no plans to at this point.

    ReplyDelete
  3. Her book talks about freezer storage. If your power goes out you can lose all your food. After about 4 months in the freezer it becomes a more expensive way to store food too. We have a little chest freezer, but for about 1/2 the year I don't have it plugged in. I'm planning to can more this year. I think it's a book you'd like.

    ReplyDelete