About three months ago I wrote about the Red Cross Prepare Out Loud event and how excellent I thought it was:
http://preparedspork.blogspot.com/2018/03/prepare-out-loud.html
I am still looking forward to the next round of events in the fall, and choosing one nearby and inviting people from every house on my block. I think it is that important. It's not just that preparedness is important, but that being in touch with our neighbors is important.
Between now and then I want to focus on some traditional emergency preparedness using Red Cross materials. Yes, this blog has many old posts on emergency preparedness, but lately it has been more spiritual and intellectual. There are many important aspects to provident, and if you can't do everything at once, then you need to cycle through.
I will be using Prepare! A Resource Guide. It is something they gladly hand out, but also something that you can find online:
https://p.widencdn.net/5rdg1y/redcrossprepareguide
It is divided into fourteen sections. I can't guarantee that I will not break some sections down into smaller parts, or that I will not have some week where I need to go off an on urgent tangent, but for right now I am assuming it will takes us through September, and that if I do this right, our family preparedness will be in better shape.
So feel free to follow along, not just in terms of looking ahead to see what I will write about each week, but also in terms of making your own plans and laying in your own supplies.
It is possible.
Sunday, June 24, 2018
Sunday, June 17, 2018
Reassurance
Last week in Relief Society we talked about charity, and one sister brought up the need to have charity for ourselves, as well as for others.
This is a real need, and I think one thing that makes it harder is that we will often have so many good intentions that end up being more than we can manage. We want good things, but we are not doing them, or not as many as need to be done, or not as many as we think we should be able to do.
The comfort I can give here is that although we do not have infinite time, and that is frustrating, the time we have can be enough.
That has been especially noticeable for me in two ways lately.
One has been that my scripture study is often interrupted. It's a thing we are supposed to do, I have seen the benefits, but I get needed a lot. I have also seen that what I was studying is still there after. Maybe I will get back to it in a few minutes, and sometimes it waits until the next day, but still, it is there.
The other area has been housework. As my mother's health has fluctuated, I have been doing more of the housework. Sometimes I think I should do it all, and other times it seems important to still have her contribute in the ways she can, but there are some things that it is probably better for me to do anyway.
Growing up, Mom cleaned everything thoroughly, and she did the basics every day. She had her own rug shampooer. She didn't use that every day, but cleaning the bathrooms, dusting, windows, vacuuming and floors were done every day.
Not only have I found that I can't quite keep up with that, but since the Norovirus flew through our house I have been wanted to do a thorough surface cleaning of everything to make sure that no seeds of a new epidemic are waiting to sprout. My ideas for how much should be doable over the course of a day have been sadly mistaken.
Still, I have found that the work remains. It's not that frequency doesn't matter; there is a big difference between cleaning the toilets every other day and trying to get away with every three or four days. Frankly, that part is kind of disturbing. But if you can do one thing every other day, than that opens up a slot on the alternating days for a different task that can probably be okay every other day instead of daily.
The week that segued from long hospital visits to illness did not see any vacuuming done. I did not feel great about that. Nonetheless, everyone survived.
There are judgments to be made, and give and take. Perhaps part of making it all work is keeping enough of an eye on things to see what needs attention now and what can wait another day.
I have for some time wanted to do a series of posts on that topic, because cleanliness is a factor in provident living, and people don't always know all of the parts of it. Information can be harder to find that you would think.
That is on deck, but before that I want to spend some time on emergency preparedness. I should be starting that next week, but I still think it was important to talk about this today. When you are preparing for emergencies, it is very easy to panic about how much needs to be done, and whether it can be done soon enough. That will not help.
You can sense what areas are more important to address first. You can get good ideas for how to accomplish what you need. You can do things in wisdom and order, and exercise faith.
It can be enough time.
This is a real need, and I think one thing that makes it harder is that we will often have so many good intentions that end up being more than we can manage. We want good things, but we are not doing them, or not as many as need to be done, or not as many as we think we should be able to do.
The comfort I can give here is that although we do not have infinite time, and that is frustrating, the time we have can be enough.
That has been especially noticeable for me in two ways lately.
One has been that my scripture study is often interrupted. It's a thing we are supposed to do, I have seen the benefits, but I get needed a lot. I have also seen that what I was studying is still there after. Maybe I will get back to it in a few minutes, and sometimes it waits until the next day, but still, it is there.
The other area has been housework. As my mother's health has fluctuated, I have been doing more of the housework. Sometimes I think I should do it all, and other times it seems important to still have her contribute in the ways she can, but there are some things that it is probably better for me to do anyway.
Growing up, Mom cleaned everything thoroughly, and she did the basics every day. She had her own rug shampooer. She didn't use that every day, but cleaning the bathrooms, dusting, windows, vacuuming and floors were done every day.
Not only have I found that I can't quite keep up with that, but since the Norovirus flew through our house I have been wanted to do a thorough surface cleaning of everything to make sure that no seeds of a new epidemic are waiting to sprout. My ideas for how much should be doable over the course of a day have been sadly mistaken.
Still, I have found that the work remains. It's not that frequency doesn't matter; there is a big difference between cleaning the toilets every other day and trying to get away with every three or four days. Frankly, that part is kind of disturbing. But if you can do one thing every other day, than that opens up a slot on the alternating days for a different task that can probably be okay every other day instead of daily.
The week that segued from long hospital visits to illness did not see any vacuuming done. I did not feel great about that. Nonetheless, everyone survived.
There are judgments to be made, and give and take. Perhaps part of making it all work is keeping enough of an eye on things to see what needs attention now and what can wait another day.
I have for some time wanted to do a series of posts on that topic, because cleanliness is a factor in provident living, and people don't always know all of the parts of it. Information can be harder to find that you would think.
That is on deck, but before that I want to spend some time on emergency preparedness. I should be starting that next week, but I still think it was important to talk about this today. When you are preparing for emergencies, it is very easy to panic about how much needs to be done, and whether it can be done soon enough. That will not help.
You can sense what areas are more important to address first. You can get good ideas for how to accomplish what you need. You can do things in wisdom and order, and exercise faith.
It can be enough time.
Sunday, June 10, 2018
Sour girl
It was a concern to me when I would read old conference talks and find that the old magic wasn't there.
I can't say that I have always paid rapt attention to conference; my note-taking has been primarily a way to stay alert, because the length of conference alone is enough to lull me to sleep. Still, even if there were things that I noticed on reading that I didn't notice while listening, or there were things I missed, my general feelings were positive and enjoyable. Since that conference when I got mad at Elder Hallstrom, it hasn't been the same, but I thought it was different. Finding those irritations in older conferences meant the difference was me.
I wasn't happy about that. I wasn't overly worried, because I am still fully engaged and committed, but it felt like it could be a hard thing if I was going to stop enjoying it. (I have been released from nursery too, so I am going to start interacting with a lot more adults now too.)
There have been little things that have helped. It was even there in the talk from Elder Haight: yes, he quoted something blatantly false and Pat Buchanan, but also the counsel he gave for staying strong was accurate and did not align with what he had previously said.
There was comfort in an Ensign article on the Proclamation, that I thought would be horrible but wasn't. (I wrote about that here: http://preparedspork.blogspot.com/2018/04/comforted.html.)
But the thing that really brought everything into harmony was a talk from Bonnie D. Parkin, just after she was released as Relief Society president.
https://www.lds.org/general-conference/2007/04/gratitude-a-path-to-happiness?lang=eng
The annoyance came in the first two paragraphs, with reference to women's roles in the home and family, and this question from Eliza R. Snow:
"Do you know of any place on the face of the earth, where [a] woman has more liberty, and where she enjoys such high and glorious privileges as she does here, as a Latter-day Saint?”
We are surrounded by chauvinists, there is much of our practice the reinforces it, and that is not being against home and family but let's broaden our perspective a little!
See, that's sour. I have never not been feminist, but I didn't used to react like that.
But then in the third paragraph, there was a story of a family that had suffered a lot, but realized that they were surrounded by support, and that has been the story of my family lately. It inspired me to kneel down and say a prayer of gratitude for the support received. It was also the basis for a conversation with my sisters later that came up spontaneously, but it was relevant and I referred to the talk and we had a good talk.
That's when I realized, for all of the frustration, I am still guided and inspired and comforted by church materials. I still have that.
To have that old unruffled enjoyment, I would have had to keep turning off parts of my heart and the compassion in them. I know, some people think that it is turning off your brain, and maybe that could work, but for me it would have been my heart. I would have to ignore everything that I have taken in from anyone marginalized, and harden my heart against them. That price would be too great, and it would hamper my salvation, and I am glad that was not how it came out.
But the other alternative for many is to not be able to enjoy church anymore - which often leads to no longer going. I could not have accepted that. Doing that leaves a church full of conformists who want to convert the whole world, but not accept those people in the world as they are. We do not need that.
Or maybe I could have ended up just staying, but staying sour. That would be terrible too. This has ended up being the best possible outcome for me.
Back after I embraced hating my family (not quite that way), I remember the next Sunday seeing someone whom I could easily find annoying, but still spiritually siblings - still a good person, though flawed - and I remember getting this cycle in my head of "Love, but know" and "Know, but love". It was a cycle, because whether you start by knowing their flaws and love them anyway, or you love them and are still aware of their flaws, I don't know. Both still have to be possible.
That's not exactly cynicism, though it can resemble it. Maybe it's just a little sour.
I can't say that I have always paid rapt attention to conference; my note-taking has been primarily a way to stay alert, because the length of conference alone is enough to lull me to sleep. Still, even if there were things that I noticed on reading that I didn't notice while listening, or there were things I missed, my general feelings were positive and enjoyable. Since that conference when I got mad at Elder Hallstrom, it hasn't been the same, but I thought it was different. Finding those irritations in older conferences meant the difference was me.
I wasn't happy about that. I wasn't overly worried, because I am still fully engaged and committed, but it felt like it could be a hard thing if I was going to stop enjoying it. (I have been released from nursery too, so I am going to start interacting with a lot more adults now too.)
There have been little things that have helped. It was even there in the talk from Elder Haight: yes, he quoted something blatantly false and Pat Buchanan, but also the counsel he gave for staying strong was accurate and did not align with what he had previously said.
There was comfort in an Ensign article on the Proclamation, that I thought would be horrible but wasn't. (I wrote about that here: http://preparedspork.blogspot.com/2018/04/comforted.html.)
But the thing that really brought everything into harmony was a talk from Bonnie D. Parkin, just after she was released as Relief Society president.
https://www.lds.org/general-conference/2007/04/gratitude-a-path-to-happiness?lang=eng
The annoyance came in the first two paragraphs, with reference to women's roles in the home and family, and this question from Eliza R. Snow:
"Do you know of any place on the face of the earth, where [a] woman has more liberty, and where she enjoys such high and glorious privileges as she does here, as a Latter-day Saint?”
We are surrounded by chauvinists, there is much of our practice the reinforces it, and that is not being against home and family but let's broaden our perspective a little!
See, that's sour. I have never not been feminist, but I didn't used to react like that.
But then in the third paragraph, there was a story of a family that had suffered a lot, but realized that they were surrounded by support, and that has been the story of my family lately. It inspired me to kneel down and say a prayer of gratitude for the support received. It was also the basis for a conversation with my sisters later that came up spontaneously, but it was relevant and I referred to the talk and we had a good talk.
That's when I realized, for all of the frustration, I am still guided and inspired and comforted by church materials. I still have that.
To have that old unruffled enjoyment, I would have had to keep turning off parts of my heart and the compassion in them. I know, some people think that it is turning off your brain, and maybe that could work, but for me it would have been my heart. I would have to ignore everything that I have taken in from anyone marginalized, and harden my heart against them. That price would be too great, and it would hamper my salvation, and I am glad that was not how it came out.
But the other alternative for many is to not be able to enjoy church anymore - which often leads to no longer going. I could not have accepted that. Doing that leaves a church full of conformists who want to convert the whole world, but not accept those people in the world as they are. We do not need that.
Or maybe I could have ended up just staying, but staying sour. That would be terrible too. This has ended up being the best possible outcome for me.
Back after I embraced hating my family (not quite that way), I remember the next Sunday seeing someone whom I could easily find annoying, but still spiritually siblings - still a good person, though flawed - and I remember getting this cycle in my head of "Love, but know" and "Know, but love". It was a cycle, because whether you start by knowing their flaws and love them anyway, or you love them and are still aware of their flaws, I don't know. Both still have to be possible.
That's not exactly cynicism, though it can resemble it. Maybe it's just a little sour.
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