I was thinking the other night as I fell asleep how this symbol means so much to those who live on the water in the Pacific Ocean and the Salish Sea. I had spent the day on the other side of the Salish Sea, fully dependent on the ferry system to get back home. I tend to pay attention, while others often do not. When you are only on your feet, you must pay attention to how you might get home—or even be safe, even if all is well and safe because you do not know when something might occur.
Seven circles. If you listen and pay attention, it could save your life. It’s not if it will happen, but when it happens. It’s the price we pay to live here, on the water, in an area known for earthquakes.
It is a tsunami alert beacon located along the water. They are supposed to activate if an alert goes out after an earthquake (and it could be an Earthquake across the Pacific Ocean, all the way in Japan, with the wave coming at us).
It’s time to drop everything and start running uphill as fast as you can. If you feel a long and deep earthquake, you should move as soon as the shaking stops.
Had these been more prevalent in the past 20 years, many people might have lived after the major tsunamis in Asia. I grew up always being told never to turn my back to the ocean, but my husband who didn’t grow up in the PNW had no idea what a tusnami could do, when we watched the one in 2004 in Thailand, he was shocked. In all those events, people actually walked out onto the sand and followed it, many to their deaths. It was unfortunate. My Mom was a child on the Pacific Ocean when she and her sibling’s housekeeper (what you’d call a nanny now) looked up and saw my Mom walking out as the water receded oddly. It wasn’t a major one, but it wiped the beach clean. She grabbed the kids and ran up to the top of the bluff with them, potentially saving them.
And that is something important: simply paying attention so you can hopefully not be a victim if anything happens. If you are paying attention, you may be able to help others.
It parallels with food security.
Sometimes, the biggest point in being a prepper is being able to help others when they have nothing. If you are prepared, and others are not – or worse – they lose everything they have, you may be able to step up and help them out.
I don’t see prepping as preparing for the apocalypse, where civilization ends, but rather as preparing for events where you need a week, a month, or more of help.
Right now, our country is in a crisis—one that the legacy media is attempting to cover up. Life isn’t, and will not be, normal for many people for a very long time. They lost everything. But so many people have gone to help with physical labor, food, water, money, and fuel. Those who survived are helping those who have nothing.
By being ready, you can help others if you are safe and have your needs met.
And as I closed my eyes, and sleep took over, I prayed a thankful prayer that for now I am safe. But we don’t know what the next day holds for us. For if bad things happen locally and I am OK, I will seek out those who need help. And if I need help, I will be appreciative of those who come to help us.
It is the way.
~Sarah