Pack your bag!!!

As some of you know, my daughter (Alyssa) just had a gorgeous baby boy, my first grand baby, of course the best looking and smartest baby in the world. There are no words to describe the feeling of holding this little bundle of joy in my arms.

I was at her home a few days before the big even happened. We all knew she could go in labor at any time, we just did not know when. I have given birth 4 times myself so I am pretty familiar with how things happen. Been there, done that.

So I prepared myself a small bag of things I might need for a long hospital stay, from clothes to toiletries to a good book to read and even a few drinks and healthy snacks. What I did not already pack I had made a serious mental list of things to NOT forget. I was prepared. Nothing happened for a few days. Yet my packed bag stayed sitting in the bedroom. May seem silly or redundant but still the bag sat there, waiting for me.

Alyssa had her regular visit with her OB-GYN and the nurse-midwife decided it was time to induce. They are settling her in the hospital room and telling us this will take about 48 hours. While they are doing so, her husband, my other daughter and myself drove back to the house to get the things we needs for the 48 hours stay. At home, I grabbed my bag and the few other things that were on my mental list and poof, I was ready. Less than 3 minutes. So I am then sitting back and I am watching “dad” freaking out gathering things. He can’t find anything; he is forgetting stuff and back tracking. Still he was ready in about 15-20 minutes, pretty good time if you don’t count the fact that he lost 10 lbs in sweat during the process and the other fact that he packed things they will never need and he forgot a few essentials. Still for a guy panicking he did extremely well. I was proud of him. But wouldn’t it have been much easier and saner to have a bag already packed?

This goes for your self defense needs as well. If you fear certain things that could happen to you why not get prepared for them ahead of time. Why not learn the tools that might save our life before you ever need them. Even if you never need them during your life time, wouldn’t it be smarter to have the skills just in case? If you ever come across the said ugly situation, your “bag” will be packed. You will be ready to react, respond in an appropriate manner instead of scrambling around, trying to find the right tool for the job. So get your bag packed!!! If you think you will be able to improvise, to “pack your bag” under pressure… remember how dad struggled to get things packed and how long it took him. And yet you are talking about a young man that is in great shape physically and mentally. He knew this was coming and he thought he was prepared for it. How much more difficult would it be if you are not so young anymore, and maybe not in such great shape. Or maybe you are just tired from lack of sleep that day, or sick or mentally absent. Ever try to do something under pressure when you are not “all there”?

Of course you also need to remember to pack the bag with essentials not useless things. Ever tried to sift through a gigantic purse full of junk to find your keys that are sitting somewhere at the bottom? It’s frustrating in the least. Now imagine you are under stress and you need to find those keys FAST, your life depends on it. You are in a parking lot at night, you hear or see dangerous looking people walking toward you. Kleenex, hand lotion, coupons, lipstick, snacks, junk… where are those keys… hurry…. More junk, bottle of Tylenol, mints, makeup, more Kleenex…. Come on….. I know you are in there…. Here I finally found them… wait… it’s too late….. It would have been a lot easier to have a simple purse with organized compartments so you could reach inside without even looking and finding what you need.

Now don’t all go getting rid of your purse, this is only a metaphor.

If the things you know for self defense are cluttering your mind instead of being easy to find in the blink of an eye, it will do you NO good. So learn a few things that make sense, that will work in most every occasion. Then when you need to “reach in your bag” to find something you will be able to do so quickly and without looking or thinking about it. Your bag will be officially “well packed”. And there is nothing silly or redundant about that.

Be smart, stay safe.