We have all watched with concern, prayers, and sympathy as the people of Japan have struggled to deal with the tragic loss of life and lifestyle. No food, no water, no communications, no ability to travel, no homes to search, and no way to explain the age old question of…why. While we may not be able to answer the question of why; we can take a moment and learn from this very tragic situation. Natural disaster is a firm, but effective, school master and its lessons are both profound and plentiful. The people of Japan are some of the most level headed, and most prepared, in the world. They train relentlessly from early youth and still they stand in wonder, awe, and amazement at the devastation before them. Lesson: No matter how prepared we are we can rest assured we can never prepare for everything. Sometimes nature wins and we have no choice but to accept and move forward. However, let’s ask a simple question; what if they had not been that prepared? What if they had not been as careful as they built their homes and buildings? What if they had not trained over and over again, drill after drill, year after year? Now ask an even more frightening question; what if it had been us? Would our buildings hold? Would our children know what to do? Would we be ready? Its food for thought and it’s up to us to take the time to actually learn, change, and prepare. A simple truth remains, a friend pointed it out to me long ago, we will all face adversity, we will all face emergency but, we may choose “how” we will face it: By design, or by default. We can choose to learn from others and design a plan and prepare ourselves or we can simply act by default and let the trials come and let the chips fall where they may. Take a moment to think it over, do you want to live through a time of emergency or do you simply want to survive it? By design or by default...it’s your call.
Take time to design your plan and visit us at our Daybreak Emergency Preparedness fair this next month; it’s for our community, it’s for our future! See you there.