Emergency Kit

I’ve had it on my to-do list for several years now to assemble an emergency kit “just in case.” After the latest string of earthquakes around the world, it finally prompted me to act on that desire. I’m proud to say I now have one kit outside the house and one inside, just to cover all bases. I tried to imagine the different emergencies that could befall us and decided worst case scenario would be the house burning down in the middle of the night, so I made sure to include a set of clothes for each of us. Lord knows we’ll always need clean underwear.


Just like fire insurance (something we have we are pretty sure we won’t ever need), my little emergency kits now gives me some peace of mind, knowing that if the occasion arises, I’m prepared. That uneasy feeling in the back of my mind that says “what if” has now left the building, literally.

In telling a few friends about this monumental task I’ve finally completed, I’ve been surprised by how many people have told me they feel some kind of impending doom really is coming down the line, so they thought it wise we all be prepared for some disaster. I don’t have a year’s worth of food and water like my Mormon friends, but I have enough for a few days. But then I wonder, if the doom is something horrible like a nuclear bomb, would I really want to keep on living anyway knowing the months and years to follow might be even worse? We live in interesting times.

Sometimes I even question the logic behind my preserving so many of Kaleb’s childhood memories – that perhaps it’s all for naught. When I started journaling his life (16 books ago) I thought maybe he wouldn’t be as interested in all the journals, scrapbooks and photo albums as perhaps his wife or children would be, but often I wonder if those days will ever even arrive. But then I realize how fast time goes by, and I might be a grandmother before I know it. Lord help me – I’m getting old!

I feel pretty blessed to be over 50 without a single health issue to complain about. Not that I’m super healthy, but I don’t take any medication or have any “condition” (other than some unwanted fat attached to various parts of my body). I’m as medically uninteresting as it gets. That suits me just fine. I know it’s probably not the norm. Just thinking about my closest circle of friends I can rattle off one heck of a list of medical challenges they are facing right now. To be free from that kind of worry and/or pain is something I thank God for each and every day. I’d rather be poor and in good health than rich, with a health concern, that's for sure.

I don’t know what the future holds but, as they say, I know who holds the future. I can’t borrow trouble worrying about tomorrow because then I would rob today of some level of joy. Sometimes I wonder if I even have enough joy to get me through the day, as I often complain a bit too much about life in general. I focus too much on the negative, even for my own liking.

I made a comment to a friend recently that my life seems a little on the “boring” side these days and she responded with an explosion of enthusiasm, “Boring! Your life is not boring! If you have grass growing out in your yard, how can it be boring? Just think about the miracle of each blade. And don’t you think it’s fascinating when the steam from the tea kettle comes swirling out of the spout every morning? How can life be boring when you have so many miracles around you every day?!”

I guess that’s why she’s an artist and I’m a list maker. To me, it was a genuine miracle that I could actually scratch that emergency kit off my to-do list. I think I'm ready for what the future holds now and that brings me joy for this day, anyway.  How boring is that?