Preparing and Being Ready

There’s an eclipse coming up on Monday, which you may be aware. We’re planning to celebrate with kids, who live not far away but in the path of totality. There are predictions of cloud cover, but that’s life. We will experience the daytime total darkness regardless.

image is screenshot from this KTVB7 News story

Warning Sign

Does it have meaning? Is it a warning? Maybe. In fact, I think it likely does have meaning, although its exact predictive meaning evades me—and most of the various YouTubers offering their speculations.

I have a few favorites:  

·        Christian Homestead (see his Signs in the Heavens playlist) 

·        Christian Fire Poppy (hers are full of connections she’s made, often looking at constellations, using the online tool Stellarium; I recommend her first one, together with Christian Homestead, and there are three with "Revelation 12 sign" in the title from September-October 2023, plus more as we approach the eclipse)

·        Allie Duzett (she has an entire playlist for the 2024 eclipse; hers is astrology, but looking at the energetic types of influence from the stars and planets, rather than predicting future events; much is puzzling to me, but I love her positive and practical attitude and approach)  

Even if this eclipse is just a stunning natural event in the sky, it still might be a good time to prepare. We're already in times of chaos, so it seems prudent to prepare for any eventuality we can think of.

Every location has its risks. Here in Houston we have hurricanes and tornadoes, and floods (Hurricane Harvey combined these), and power outages, which we get with frequent brief technology failures, and with hurricanes, but we’ve also experienced them with a rare severe freeze. There are certain things we know to do now. Although, my husband says if we have another hurricane with power outage, he’s going to send me away to stay with kids, because that’s easier on him than worrying about me.

Disaster Preparedness

On Wednesday night, Glenn Beck’s program was “Prepping 101: The Step-by-Step Guide to Surviving Global Chaos” (also on YouTube), complete with multiple chalkboards. He was talking mostly physical preparedness—storing food and water, having tools and ammunition, keeping some money on hand (or gold, or something tradeable).

First up in his show, he talked about the electric grid. There are three in the US: east, west, and Texas. Yes, Texas has its own. We prefer that. In that failure we had during winter storm Uri, in 2021, that happened for reasons that would only be magnified by US-level control: windmills froze and wouldn’t turn, so no power from them; solar doesn’t provide power during a storm that blocks the sun (or when it’s night). Some things were offline for repair or inspection at a critical time. There were other reasons that all lined up, as things tend to do. But there have been some improvements and protections since that disaster.

It’s true, though, that an attack on the power grid would put a majority of people in the US at risk of death, if not immediately, then within weeks or months. (I wrote about this here and here.) It’s a bit scary to be that vulnerable.

screenshot from Glenn Beck's "Prepping 101" program

There are so many ways we’re vulnerable, it’s hard to list them. Nor do we want to tempt fate. But there are some principes of survival. First up, that Glenn showed, were what is called the Rule of 3s, because so many things relate to that number:

You can survive:

·        3 minutes without air.

·        3 hours without shelter in bad conditions.

·        3 days without water.

·        3 weeks without food.

·        And you have 3 days to get out of a perilous situation and get to safety.

screenshot of one of Glenn Beck's chalkboard lists

Home Preparedness

Next up, Glenn put up a chalkboard with 6 basic steps to prepping. (He’s something of a prepper himself, and often foresees disasters coming—sometimes he’s right.)

So here are the steps:

1.      Build a solid personal finance and health foundation (money in various levels of availability, plus medicines, first aid, etc.)

2.      Get your home ready for two weeks of self-reliance. (Food, water, fuel, and any essentials to shelter in place for a couple of weeks.)

3.      Know when to “bug out.” Have “go bags.” (Essential food, clothing, meds, water to get you through about 72 hours away from home. It may be a good idea to have one packed for each member of the family, and update frequently.)

4.      Prepare for emergencies away from home. (If you can’t get home, do you have essential meds, first-aid kit.)

5.      Learn core skills—and practice! (Here’s where he suggests camping, and maybe hunting, as good practice for cooking and cleaning away from home.)

6.      Share what you’ve learned, and build a base of like-minded friends. (Around here, we have people assigned at church to learn and share preparedness skills with us. So we know who the experts are, and we get info and learn from them pretty regularly—and maybe especially as hurricane season approaches.)

screenshot of another Glenn Beck chalkboard

The next chalkboard was for getting your home ready for a two-week shelter in place. Glenn Beck offers a pretty extensive list—but many of these things are what you have already. You just need to take inventory and add what you’re missing. The categories are:

·        Water—15 gal./person (1 gal./person/day)

·        Food—23,000 calories per person (1500 calories/person/day)

·        Fire—lighters matches, fire starters

·        Light—flashlights, candles, lanterns

·        Heating/Cooling—indoor heater, extra blankets, USB-powered fan

·        Shelter—beyond home, tarps for improvised shelter, or tents

·        Medical—create list of medical supplies

·        Hygiene—wet wipes, sanitizer, camp soap

·        Communications—ham and/or NOAA radio

·        Power—batteries, rechargers, solar charger (I would add generator to this list)

·        Tools—axe, shovel, work gloves, wrenches, zip ties, duck tape

·        Self-defense—guns and ammo

·        Cash—as much as you can afford to store

o   Bartering items (alcohol, cigarettes)

o   Precious metals

·        EMP proof home (I think this means grounding, as we do to protect against lightning strikes, but maybe this is more—like a Faraday cage, but I don’t know how you do that with your whole house.

screenshot of another Glenn Beck chalkboard

Glenn Beck has a quiz to assess your readiness for whatever, and I came out “better than most.”

We have a fair amount of food—most of which I cannot eat now, because of food sensitivities/allergies. So it would be challenging to eat just from the pantry and not the refrigerator or freezer.

We have a generator (since Hurricane Ike in 2008). It’s noisy. It takes fuel. And it’s not enough to handle the air conditioner or heater. But it’s good for lights, fans, recharging phones and batteries. In fact, we were able to help neighbors on both sides keep their freezers alive as well (with long extension cords).

We used to camp, when we lived in the northwest, and Mr. Spherical Model used to camp a lot even here in Texas, as a scoutmaster. Camping is good practice, to learn skills and think of better ways of doing things and learning to be resourceful. But I haven’t been willing to camp in the Texas heat with Texas mosquitos. I’m not much of a pioneer. Still, we do have a camp stove and some basic equipment.

There’s always more to do. And it’s better done a little at a time, as you can handle things with clear thought, without panic or urgency. The idea is to prepare so you don’t have to fear.

 

Spiritual Preparedness

Near the end of his program—too late to spend time on it, Glenn Beck suggested we also need to do some spiritual preparedness.

This, I would suggest, includes the basics: knowing how to pray, and how to hear answers and receive direction from God. It includes putting your life in order, daily repentance and improvement, refining—so that the Lord (and life in general) doesn’t force you into that refinement. And it includes learning to trust God.

A friend once gave me a lapel pin of a frog, with a note that it was a reminder to “Fully Rely On God.” I like that.

We have been practicing this for a while now—maybe through some of that forced refining. We’re not really ready—as the story of Joseph in Egypt goes—for a coming disaster such as seven lean years that have followed seven prosperous years. Because we’ve been depleting our stores the past seven years. We think we’re nearing the end, and rains that make the ground fruitful are about to come down on us—despite what an eclipse may portend. But this has really stretched our reliance on God, Who has been good to us throughout.

If you’re feeling less than fully prepared, or maybe just need a reminder of what the Holy Spirit feels like, I suggest tuning in to the worldwide conference of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints this weekend. Boosting your spiritual preparedness is what that’s all about. You can find it on BYUTV, on YouTube, or at ChurchofJesusChrist.org. There will be three two-hour sessions on Saturday, April 6, and two more on Sunday, April 7, just ahead of the eclipse. You can watch live, or come back later to watch; transcripts will be available a few days later. And, since it's a worldwide conference, it's available in many languages.