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Health & Fitness

5 Lessons Learned, Post Quake & Storm

Blogger Ruth Young Tyler shares the lessons she learned following the East Coast earthquake and Hurricane Irene.

I have learned my lesson!  

The chain of events that transpired during the week of August 22, 2011 were those depicted in a book from New York Times Bestseller’s List or one from the Silver Screen: A 4.5 earthquake that rumbled the east coast, then Hurricane Irene.

The quake caused disruption to several East Coast states, as well as Canada. The ground-shaking event caused disruption in our communications system limiting residents to rely on text messaging and tapping into various social networking sites.

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Following the unprecedented natural occurrences it left hundreds of thousands of people feeling vulnerable, including me.

Here are five lessons I learned during and after those events.

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We all lead very active lives and are pulled in different directions. Many people barely talk to their neighbors, with the exception of a cordial (perhaps obligatory) greeting. It may prove to beneficial to make a concerted effort and extend ourselves to the people in our community.

Lesson No. 1: Develop a healthy rapport with most of your neighbors before an event occurs so you won’t feel awkward in generating a conversation with them. Don’t let a major incident draw you together, do it willingly.

Admittedly, I thoroughly enjoy all of my electronic devices especially the computer for connecting on social media platforms, reading the news, taking care of business and social purposes. However, electronics should not be the only way to engage people in conversation. Unplug yourselves from your smartphone. Start talking, preferably face-to-face. And OMG stop texting just to connect. LOL!

Lesson No. 2: Increase the quality of your conversation by reading a personal development book. Two books that I recommend are The Magic of Thinking Big by David J. Schwartz and The Fine Art of Small Talk by Debra Fine.

One of the things I am most proud of is my personal library of books. However, what is even more valuable than that is having the information retained in my mind and heart and then applied accordingly, so that when challenging events occur, I can rely upon those mental resources.   

Lesson No. 3: I will read more and keep faith-building resources in a knapsack so that even during times of uncertainly, I can feel assured that “this too shall pass.”

When the electricity was out, I had to get my “bearings together” and figure out a plan. My family and I traveled to a McDonald’s outside of the affected area to re-charge all of the communication devices. The restaurant only had two electrical outlets accessible for customer use!

While we were there, approximately 15-20 people came in to charge their phones and laptops.

Lesson No. 4: Write down (yes, with pen and paper) the five best places to charge your communication devices and get great food and coffee, providing there is electricity at these establishments.

The night of Hurricane Irene, we immediately packed a knapsack of items needed for two overnight stays. In hindsight, I should have packed a knapsack in advance.  I should have known better, I used to teach preparedness!

Thus, the next lesson:

Lesson No. 5 (relearned): We should always have a knapsack packed with essential items and put them in the trunk of the car.

We may go without electricity (for a few days), but we are never without power! 

Until then … I’m gearing up for the next major event, are you?

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