Philosophy of Emergency Preparedness

In life, bad stuff as well as good stuff happens with surprising regularity. Preparing sufficiently so the bad is truly not so bad is worth doing if not at least investigating. I'm not a doomer stockpiling guns and gold for the final armageddon. I started this blog so other readers might benefit from a more pragmatic angle on preparedness that doesn't involve escaping to an underground bunker in a post-apocalyptic survivalist fantasy.
After two decades of living through various life emergencies, my current practice of emergency preparedness is less about owning the right kit and more about living in a healthy rooted way with a prepared mindset.  I consider these three areas to be the pillars of preparedness:

1. Striving to be in the best possible health- physically and mentally. 
2. Knowing and being in good relations with your neighbors and people who surround you.
3. Knowing how to ask for help or give help. 

Emergencies come in all sizes and flavors and you have to decide for yourself what the most likely emergencies and make a plan for preparation. For myself, I prepare for the following types of emergencies:

• Natural disaster - earthquakes for us in California
• Medical emergency- An accident which requires going to the emergency room or whole family sick at home with the flu
• Financial emergency like losing one's job
• Electricity outage - increasingly common due to extreme weather
• Water outage - our aging municipal pipes 
• Snackage emergency- nothing delicious to eat in the middle of the night.  Although seemingly frivolous, this is the one that hits me hardest every week.

Hopefully we won't suffer too many of these in our lifetimes but life has a way of hitting us hard.