Surrounded by Viruses and Anxiety…..

You know when I was a kid, my grandmother (who was the one who let me shoot her .38 when I was 8 years old) had this painting in her living room…it was a picture of an old bearded man praying and had the Serenity Prayer embossed over  it. I can still see it.

“God, grant me the SERENITY to accept the things I cannot change, COURAGE to Change the things I can, and WISDOM to Know the Difference.”

If the CO needs to listen to any advice during this time of anxiousness and worry, it is this one: SERENITY, COURAGE and WISDOM.

I debated about even posting anything about this ebola situation because really, there is nothing I could tell you guys you don’t already know…yeah, I can do something about prepping and having the right supplies and plan, but is that really what you guys need to hear right now? I am sure most of you have visited enough “Survival Boards” and heard enough fear mongering by now you are ready to run for the hills!

On a separate note, the “other” virus that has everybody worried, EV-D68 (Enterovirus) has now spread to 48 States and  has claimed it’s first child victim. As this bug mostly attacks kids, as a parent, this one has been on my radar far longer than ebola has.What angers me is the despicable political correctness that has been involved in labeling exactly where this bug came from. I remember when this bug first appeared, Dr. Ed Dominguez that speaks on our local news made the comment “Viruses do not respect borders”…a clear jab at exactly where this nasty bug came from; Central and South America. The issue is clear: IMO, Both of these outbreaks (Ebola and Enterovirus) could have been curtailed and most likely stopped if we had SECURED OUR BORDERS like we are supposed to do in a Post 9/11 World! Why were our Southern Borders left unsecured while tens of thousands of un-innoculated children flooded in? Why were  ANY flights that had been either to Liberia or Sierra Leone ever let into this country? Once again proof that our Government is always looking out for your best interest……NOT!!

The bottom line is this: We cannot worry about things we CANNOT change, only about the things we have control over.  And one of the BIGGEST things you have control over right now is your own HEALTH & SAFETY.

I have lived through enough natural disasters, the most recent one being Hurricane Ike, that I have always made it a point to try and LEARN something useful during the hardships so that I can grow as a CO. The one thing I have learned since the ebola crisis began has been this: We need to approach how we prepare for a medical crisis like this in a new way. Instead of focusing on the standard “prepping” stuff such as: Get your supplies in order, Have your 2 plans in place, Know how to Make a “Sick” Room, etc. We need to be more pro-active and focus more on keeping ourselves and our loved ones HEALTHY! If we really want to be prepared to survive a virulent crisis like the one we are facing now, the most logical thing we can do is to keep our IMMUNE system in tip-top shape! The best way to do that is to AVOID Stress and Anxiety. When we worry and are anxious, it does several nasty things to our body. Besides clouding your mind where you cannot think clearly and make rational decisions, a nasty cocktail of hormones are released into your bloodstream which effect your heart, lungs and nervous system. So do yourself a favor, if you really want to be prepared to survive this latest crisis: Take a breath, relax and remind yourself what it is precisely that is worth staying alive for.

For everything else worth talking about as far as preparation, I found this very sensible, practical and realistic article from The Daily Sheeple.

Stay Calm, Stay Alert, Stay Armed and Stay Dangerous!!