Becoming Resilient part one: Things that go Bump in the Night
As I lay in the dark it was mostly quiet. No hum from the the heater or electronic devices. No noise from the highway. And every now and then a crack, thump, or a crash. In time I began to recognize the thump of a pile of snow sliding off the roof. The cracks worried me. These trees had been accustomed to maybe an inch of snow once a year. This time it was more than two inches and still falling. The trees above the chicken coop were drooping and forming a ‘V’ shape. One was already missing a branch near the top. We heard a crash earlier and I saw a branch laying on our roof. So far there seemed to be no damage but the night was just getting started. As I lay, trying to sleep, something about this seemed familiar, a similar situation.
I once had a sleepless night that resembled this one. I tried to sleep but was awoken on occasion by shaking. It was no person trying to wake me but the earth itself shaking. You see, I had a front row seat for the Loma Prieta earthquake. I lived less than ten miles from the epicenter. There were many aftershocks. I knew that aftershocks had the potential to be worse than the original earthquake, most so far had been weaker. At first, I would wake up and rush to the doorway for shelter. Later, I would wake up and try to estimate whether this particular aftershock was strong enough to get up for. Still, this was not the first night I spent worrying about what was going on during the night.
Years earlier, when I was in elementary school I was kept awake out of fear of a flood. That day it had rained hard. You know those intense downpours? It was like that, except it never shifted to anything lighter. In the middle of the morning at school, the power went out. After a while parents started picking up their children. That night when my father arrived home he told us of the water flowing over the bridge that he had to cross and the car moving sideways as he was crossing it. Fortunately both he and the car got across safely. That night we ate by the light of an oil lamp. The radio stations kept on playing rain-related songs and I worried that during the night the water would rise up to our house and we would not be able to escape. Although it rained 25 inches that day (I know, it seems like too much but that is the information from the best sources I could find), our house did not flood. I later came to realize that it could not have rained enough to flood our house.
A few days later, when the waters had receded and things were closer to normal, my teacher had the class brainstorm ideas for coping with such events in the future. I think this may have been the start of resilience for me. I learned that hard times like this could occur. I learned that it is possible to survive. I learned that one can prepare for such events. One result was that I always looked at potential homes with respect to what would happen in a flood. I see how I would flee if I had to and whether I would be fine where I am. Since the time of the flood I have experienced a major earthquake, some wildfires, a pandemic, and now a snowstorm. I have learned that such life-disrupting events occur from time to time. Some occur together. I think about the people going through their own difficulties in Ukraine who then also have to deal with the disruption of war. There are still many things I have not experienced that could disrupt my life. How can I deal with something new? How did I deal with the recent windstorm and the snowstorm?
One of my lessons is to realize that I cannot control everything. I try to recognize which things are beyond my control and which are within my control. I cannot control whether branches fall on my roof. I can control how I will react. I cannot control w hether or not the power company supplies power. I can control what I will do when they fail to do so. I cannot control how much rain or snow falls. I can control how I manage my land to accommodate excess water. I cannot control whether the supply chains are disrupted. I can control what I will do to minimize such disruptions in my life.
Another lesson is taking care of what needs to be done right away. When a tree fell down during the windstorm, I went out to check on the damage and found the tree had fallen on the chickens’s fence. In order to protect them I went out, checked that no more trees seemed likely to fall, cut enough of the tree to lift the piece that was on the fence, and then repair the fence as best I could for the time being. During the snowstorm I heard cracks and crashes. I went out to investigate and found a branch had fallen near the house damaging some of our possessions but missing the house. The chicken, duck, and rabbit areas had branches down but no damage to their structures. More importantly, the trees seemed to mostly lean away from the structures. The pig shelter was looking a bit weak so I scraped the snow off of it. I tried to stick to what had to be done immediately and what could be done safely. If branches were falling I would have to wait and just deal with the damage.
I also try to prepare for what might happen. In permaculture this is called planned redundancy. In all of the disruptions I have faced, I was without electricity for some time. This was even true for short periods of the pandemic although it was not related to the pandemic, it was related to poor maintenance of the electrical grid. For non-electrical heat we have a wood stove. This can also be used for cooking and during the snowstorm that is how I cooked meals. Incidentally, having something like the wood stove serve multiple functions like heat and cooking is the permaculture concept of stacking functions. When the chainsaw chain wore out and I needed to cut some wood I used a hand saw. When I found that some fences were damaged by the snow I used a battery powered tool to repair them, although I also had manual tools I could have used for the same job as a backup. When one difficult time arises you will learn in which areas you have weaknesses. I try to use these as opportunities for improvement for what may come next.
Finally, after I have taken all the actions I can to mitigate the circumstances, I try to distract myself. If no good can come from further effort or planning, I find it’s time to stop and find something else to do to take my mind off of the problem. I don’t use things like drugs or alcohol because circumstances could change and I need my full abilities to cope with whatever comes. If there is electricity I may use movies, music, books, or playing music. If there is no electricity I still have the books and playing some music. I can plan, create, draw. In the instance of the snowstorm with which I started this article I was trying to sleep which made it hard to use my distraction techniques. Instead I finally used a relaxation method and, after a while, finally fell asleep. May you find the ability to be resilient in the challenges you face in life.
Links to more articles in this series: