My main reason began with power outages. Now, as I watch the prices in my area, I'm a bit concerned about the economy. I hadn't really thought of any other reasons "important".
A few months ago, I was making a meal plan (a habit I'm still trying to get into) and a grocery list. I needed to go to the store the next day. As I went to bed, my throat felt a bit scratchy and I lamented that the land of static shock and dryness was upon us.
My alarm went off. Normally I wake right up, and hit it into silence before curling up for 10 more minutes, but this time something wasn't right. It hurt to move. I mean it really hurt to move. I tried lifting my arm and the pain was bearable, but oh my gosh it hurt. Then again, any pain after having 7 children is bearable. Slowly I sat up. It felt like every muscle in my body was on fire.
This is so not good.
I rarely get sick, and when I do it doesn't last long or have very strong symptoms. However, at that time, several things came together in my body and environment. The biggest one was my immune system was having issues. The second one was being exposed to the flu somewhere. Let the havoc begin!
I have never felt pain throughout my entire body like that. I didn't want to stand. I didn't want to walk. Even my eyes burned. Stumbling into the bathroom, I looked in the mirror. My face was red. The whites of my eyes were red. Not pink. Red. My eyes have never looked like that before. Grabbing the thermometer, I took my temperature and it read 104.3. Oh, crap.
I slowly walked to the kitchen where the Advil was. Popping two of them, I then had to get my body down the basement steps to let the dogs out. Normally, the Husky runs me over, with the Boxer close behind, trying to get to the back door. This time they held back like they knew something was wrong.
After the meds kicked in, the pain wasn't as bad, but it still hurt to move. My temp was still registering over 102. My head was pounding. My throat began to act up. I knew there was no way I was going to the store like that.
I usually ignore when I'm sick and just do what I have to do. This took me out of commission for almost a week. I couldn't do anything. Even washing a dish hurt. The kids lectured me to take it easy and heal up. I didn't have a choice. I couldn't do anything without pain. The whites of my eyes were red for several days due to the fever. Then the cough kicked in.
Long story short: nasty flu went into bronchitis which went into pneumonia.
From start to the point where I could go to the store again, without feeling like I was going to pass out, took over 6 weeks. The kids grabbed things like milk after they got off work, but we basically lived off what I had stored. At first I was upset over it, but then I realized: That's what it's there for! I store food for emergencies. Being too sick to move or shop for food kind of falls under that heading.
I know someone who lives in a hurricane area. She not only stores food for emergencies, but has evacuation supplies packed as well, because she has been evacuated a couple of times. She became tired of trying to find things when she and her family needed to hurry up and get out of Dodge. She kept telling me I needed to store emergency food. I kept blowing her off about it. "Yeah, I know. We're fine.", I'd smile and say.
One of her children committed suicide. There were no warning signs at all. Even in hindsight, no one can see anything they may have missed. It stunned everyone who knew him. She couldn't shop for food. She could barely dress herself from the grief. Church, neighbors and family brought food by, but when they stopped, she didn't have to worry about going to the store. She had a lot of food stored. She was able to stay home and deal with her and her family's grief.
Not shopping may not sound like a huge deal, but sometimes it's those little mundane things that can do us in in a time of sorrow. Some may find comfort in the rituals of life like going grocery shopping. She couldn't deal with the thought of seeing teens her son's age in the store.
I can't say I started storing at that point. After all, "something like that would never happen to my family" (thankfully, it hasn't). I didn't begin until I was actually forced into it.
The point of this is even if you don't think you need anything stored for emergencies, because you never really have any, something unexpected can come along and take you out of the picture for a bit. Having "back up" can be very helpful and even comforting.
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