Fear Not: Prepare for the Worst and Hope for the Best

This morning, as I was sitting here waiting for my company to wake up, I began catching up on the reading of my favorite blogs.  I went over to Kathy A. Johnson's blog, Catching Happiness.  I really enjoyed her post titled The Upside of Fear, especially the part about using our pasts to encourage others in the present.  

That got me thinking about the topic of fear.  Good fear, bad fear, and unnecessary fear.  What is fear exactly?  Here are some definitions of fear I found on the Web:

• be afraid or feel anxious or apprehensive about a possible or probable situation or event; "I fear she might get aggressive"
• be afraid or scared of; be frightened of; "I fear the winters in Moscow"; "We should not fear the Communists!"
• be sorry; used to introduce an unpleasant statement; "I fear I won't make it to your wedding party"
• an emotion experienced in anticipation of some specific pain or danger (usually accompanied by a desire to flee or fight)
• be uneasy or apprehensive about; "I fear the results of the final exams"
• concern: an anxious feeling; "care had aged him"; "they hushed it up out of fear of public reaction"
• reverence: regard with feelings of respect and reverence; consider hallowed or exalted or be in awe of; "Fear God as your father"; "We venerate genius"
• a feeling of profound respect for someone or something; "the fear of God"; "the Chinese reverence for the dead"; "the French treat food with gentle reverence"; "his respect for the law bordered on veneration"
  wordnetweb.princeton.edu/perl/webwn

 Please click the above picture to enlarge for easier reading.

I think for me, there are two things I fear.  The first are things that could happen to me that I have no control over.  The second isn't really about fear so much as it is about having courage to do and to go where God is leading me.  

The world has some pretty scary stuff going on in it right now, and I have been using my fear of what "might" happen to practically prepare for the future.  Hope for the best and prepare for the worst, so to speak ...without going overboard.  Talk about a tough balancing act!


When I begin to panic, I buy more rice and beans, canning jars and toilet paper.  For an example that is safe and won't get me in trouble with anybody: what would we do if the electromagnetic pulse thing happens and we all lose electricity?  This is not something I obsess over, but I just wonder, what would we need to do to adapt?  

For some reason, I stress out about the lack of cloth diapers in America.  Do these young mothers and fathers have any back-ups to their boxes of disposables?  Do they know that the Bend Walmart only has about 12 packages of  cloth diapers on the shelves at any given time, and that the La Pine Bi-Mart doesn't even carry them?  Would they think to tear up their old flannel sheets and hand sew hems on squares of fabric in order to provide protection for their babies' bottoms?  I hope so.  Or maybe they will figure out something even better.


Everything would be more labor intensive without electricity, but I would have hours and hours of spare time on my hands anyway, since there would be no more computers, internet, t.v., or cell phones.  If you have a generator that wasn't destroyed, or a car a battery that still works, you could still watch movies.  But you know what?  I really can't do much about any of that, except to prepare for the worst.  The worst might just be like prolonged tent camping, except that you are hopefully inside a house.  Or it might be like the movie, The Postman.  So, to help prepare for the worst, I look for dutch oven cookware and other things at garage sales.  I wonder if I could secure a goat for milk, if I needed to.

The second part boils down to fear of rejection.  Not really something to be afraid of after all, at least for me these days.  I know who I am, and I am fortunate to have a great husband, family, and support system.  So, that boils down to my work.  Work is not always something that you are getting paid to do.  Sometimes it is being creative ... blogging, photography, writing, art, music, crafts, whatever it may be.  If somebody doesn't like my work, then they don't.  Please don't let that kind fear sabotage your dreams, or keep you from trying new things or doing THE THING that you are meant to do.

I know that there are other kinds of fear that people are going through that I am not right now: abuse and safety concerns, illness of a child or spouse, hunger, worry of a loved one in combat, and many other true fears.  Those are real and huge issues.  I'm sending out to you faith, hope, love and prayers:  for you to get you the help you need, and for others to help you through your pain and loss.  God bless you, dear readers.

And...

Always remember: 

Remember, you can click on any photo to enlarge it.

More Olympians:

Cary's youngest daughter and her family got here around 10:00 last night.  They were on the last leg of their vacation, and parked the motor home in the RV yard for the night.  We had a nice visit, though it was way too short.  It has been so nice to see 6 out of 10 grandkids within two days, as well as their parents!

Shanna and John

Kylie

Collin and Chase

Johnny

This is John's going to the store vehicle, in case they ran out of milk or something on their trip.  I love the milk crate strapped to the back.  Shanna said that it reminds her of a place where Toto might sit.

The Real Letsoms

Martha Letsom, Talitha Letsom Hedrick and Kit Letsom

Martha is my great-great aunt, Talitha is my great-grandmother (my mom's granny), and there is nice Uncle Kit, keeper of the farm.  Well, he was the keeper of the farm, until he got old and some supposed "lost relatives" came along, moved in, and managed to get everything placed in their name.  That way, they were able to essentially steal the farm away from the real Letsom's.   My mind doesn't even work that way.  (Though it does seem to be able to remember odd and negative information and to hold a grudge.)

The funny thing is, how could you have any lost relatives in the Letsom family anyway?  These people do not lose track of their members, so the people who ended up with this cool old farm house probably were shirt-tail relatives.

Scott's Valley is in Oregon, near the general vicinity of Roseburg, Drain and Yoncalla.

Another Weather Report: Hail

Oregon Gifts of Comfort and Joy ~ Kathy Matthews

 Oregon Gifts of Comfort and Joy ~ Kathy Matthews

 Oregon Gifts of Comfort and Joy ~ Kathy Matthews

 Oregon Gifts of Comfort and Joy ~ Kathy Matthews

 Oregon Gifts of Comfort and Joy ~ Kathy Matthews

 Oregon Gifts of Comfort and Joy ~ Kathy Matthews

 Oregon Gifts of Comfort and Joy ~ Kathy Matthews

 Oregon Gifts of Comfort and Joy ~ Kathy Matthews

 Oregon Gifts of Comfort and Joy ~ Kathy Matthews

 Oregon Gifts of Comfort and Joy ~ Kathy Matthews

 Oregon Gifts of Comfort and Joy ~ Kathy Matthews

 Oregon Gifts of Comfort and Joy ~ Kathy Matthews

If you miss a day, you miss a lot!  Don't miss out on the news ... Please click here to go to my home page and see what is happening in Mayberry today.

Great Company:

We had a wonderful visit yesterday with Cary's oldest daughter and her family.  Swimming in the RV park pool, a BBQ and then some time at our house, it was so much fun to see everybody again.

Cheri

Scott cooking us some great hamburgers.

Cheri made us a delicious potato salad.

Garrett enjoying the warm pool.

Grandma, more pictures?

Maybe if I close my eyes, she will stop taking my picture!

Garrett proudly wears the gift of Grandpa 

Cary's Washington State Trooper hat.

Gage, the water baby.  "Watch out for bugs, Grandma!"

Gage just turned 4 a week ago. and has 
been riding his bike for a long time already.

What a cutie!

Mmmmm, this watermelon tastes great!

Spitting out the seeds.

A rocking cow? 

Mom helps Gage with his new alphabet game that he got 

from Grandpa and Grandma.  He loved his little bear too!

We'll get to see them again today, before they head out to a camping trip with Scott's family on Wickiup Lake.  It is always such a blessing to get a visit from our family members.

Billy the Exterminator and Vex Con:

This is one of my new favorite shows.  It really isn't like Dog the Bounty Hunter, except for the fact that they wear black leather, are a family business, and are on A & E.   The Bretherton Family at Vex Con are pretty traditional folks.  The draw for me? I enjoyed visiting Louisiana, so that catches my attention.  I couldn't live in a place with all those alligators, snakes and cockroaches, but it is very interesting to watch Billy and Ricky go at it.  Billy is very likable, and I learn a lot from watching this show.  Billy just might be by new secret boyfriend.  I think that he is more appropriate than Leland.  I got most of the following photos off of Vex Con's Facebook page.

Donnie, Bill Sr., Billy, Ricky and Mary

Meet Billy.  Billy the Exterminator.  The reason for the business, and for the show.

A former Air Force sergeant with 15 years of working in the extermination business, you gotta love this guy.   He's cute in his own way.  Billy is smart, nice, and laughs a lot.  He loves his mom, dad and brother.  He loves his wife, Mary, though she's kind of a pain.  The only person that he doesn't like is his sister-in-law, Pam.



 
Meet Ricky, Billy's brother, who is severely allergic to wasps.  Ricky loves his ex-wife, Pam, to no end.  Ricky drives everybody crazy, because Pam treats him like crap, but he won't take his ring off.  One time he thought he was actually over Pam, so he dated her best friend.  Ricky even brought her to work to meet his mom, Donnie.  The girl then asked to borrow Ricky's work truck, so he let her, and she took it over to some guy's house and never brought it back.  They even had to call the cops!  Ricky thinks that Mary, Billy's wife is very manipulative and that she is a pain in the butt.

This is Donnie, Billy and Ricky's mother.  She is a partner in the business, and does dispatch and runs the office.  Donnie is nice, but very bossy.  Because she is the mom, everybody is already used to that.  Donnie makes every call seem like an emergency, and always throws "there is a danger to the children" into her walkie-talkie so that Billy will not dawdle and will race right over to the source of the emergency.  Donnie hates Pam.  Donnie thinks that Mary is a pain too, but she is nice to her.  Donnie bosses Bill, Sr. around a lot too because he is her husband and recently suffered heart surgery.

This man is Bill, Sr., Donnie's husband and Billy and Ricky's dad.  Bill, Sr. sunk a bunch of money into Vex Con.  He is pretty quiet overall.  Bill keeps having troubles with his heart.  The ambulance had to come to the office on one of the re-runs last night.  He calls his unrelated workers the mules. 

To his credit, Bill doesn't say much about either Pam or Mary, so I am not sure where he stands on his daughter-in-laws.

This is Mary, Billy's wife.  Mary and Billy live in the same building where the office is.  Mary doesn't actually work for the company right now.  I thought that they let her go, but last night she gave her letter of resignation.  Maybe a case of too little too late on that one. Mary was making everybody mad, because when Donnie was gone, she would come into the office and begin training the employees, even though she had no idea what she was doing.   The employees were confused and not really buying into these unofficial training meetings.

Mary is pretty, and she loves Billy, but to me, she just doesn't seem as smart has he is.  Sorry, Mary.  People probably say the same thing about me.  In addition, now she is getting jealous because Billy works too much and she thinks he is out with other women.  I doubt that he is.  Ricky says that Billy needs peace when he gets home, not arguing, and if Mary doesn't knock it off  then she might come home from the store one day and find the locks changed.  Mary does not want to get the boot, so it may be a good idea for her to take Ricky's advice.  For the record, Mary is a much nicer lady than Pam.  Everybody agrees on that.  My guess is that Mary will probably get pregnant pretty soon.  That would give her a good job that nobody can argue with.  Donnie will probably try to tell her how to take care of the baby though.  That is just how Donnie is.  The end.


Official A & E Website for Billy the Exterminator
Official Fan Page: Extermi-nation.com

If you enjoyed this post, you might also like this one:

"Swamp People Review" aka: "Kathy Holds an Alligator"

Don't miss out on the news ... please click here to go to my home page and see what is happening in Mayberry today.