The Prepper Broadcasting Network - Chosing Your Hard, Virgis Ch 52

Episode Date: July 7, 2024

Every decision has consequences, including doing nothing. It's up to you to bound ahead to new adventures and not be stuck in paralysis analysis, fearful of the consequences of your value-based decisions.

Welcome back to the Changing Earth podcast with author Sarah F. Hathaway and co-host Chen Gibson. Blending survival fiction and fact to bring you entertaining education that will help you dream, survive, and thrive. And now, here's your hosts, Sarah F. Hathaway and Chen Gibson. Chapter 52. So what did you think of her, Chappie asked as the morning sun came up over the horizon. Monroe perked up as he directed the vehicle along the broken road. Intriguing, Cole commented. How do you mean? Can she sway the votes, Monroe wondered. Still weighing his choices in the complicated situation, Cole answered, I need more time to think, Monroe. Monroe stared straight ahead at the road as he mumbled. Some of us have lives to plan.

What, Cole asked, unable to discern his comment. Nothing. Forget it, Monroe answered, unwilling to elaborate. No, you tell me. What's your problem, Monroe? Cole insisted, curious about what was going on with him. Monroe just stared at the road. Chappie poked his head in from the back. Don't worry about him. He's just arguing with Ginger, Chappie said, defending his friend. Don't worry about him. He's just arguing with Ginger, Chappie said, defending his friend. Cole nodded in agreement. Ah, yes, young romance.

Such a fragile thing. His thoughts wandered to Cassidy sitting in a jail cell. We need to stop and fuel up at the federal station on the border, Monroe suggested, interrupting Cole's stewing. I agree. Fill the cans, too. We can drive straight through, Cole responded. Sounds like a plan to me, Monroe stated, pulling into the fueling station. Guards stood posted and checked their IDs as they entered.

They were waved through. Cole exited the vehicle and headed into the small building at the station. The guards at the counter noticed Cole's stripes and asked, where are you coming from, Major? Hopetown, completed evac, Cole responded flatly. They sent a Major in for a cleanup, the Fed asked. Classified information soldier, Cole explained. No need for secrecy, sir. We heard all about the malicious scum they picked up there. sir. We heard all about the malicious scum they picked up there. A job well done. Put me down for our tanks and cans, Cole directed. Yes, sir. You need to fill the water jugs too, the Fed asked, writing the supplies on the list. Two transports worth, Cole informed him. We'll get you all set, sir, the Fed said with a smile. There's an officer's room out back if you want to relax

and have a drink. He handed Cole a clipboard with the supply list and a pen. Cole signed his name, replying, you don't say. The ride had been long and hot, and Cole didn't see any harm in enjoying a drink while he waited. He handed the clipboard back to the Fed. Enjoy yourself, sir, the Fed declared. Thank you, Cole replied, headed for the door in the back. The cool air hit him like a wave as he entered the space. Air conditioning, nice, he commented to himself. And good whiskey, a voice sounded nonchalantly from the dark corner of the room. Cole approached, surprised to see the man. Eli? room. Cole approached, surprised to see the man. Eli? Where is she, Virgis? Eli asked directly.

They took her to Vegas, Cole explained as Eli poured him a drink. Shocked by the news, Eli panicked. And you did nothing? What could I do? I'd be in prison next to her and your eyes and ears inside the Badlands would be gone, Cole explained his predicament. And where's William, Eli asked, handing Cole the shot glass. Cole paused for a moment, unsure what to say. Finally, he blurted out, he's dead. And you did nothing? Eli barked at him. I was loading up people.

The feds were going to leave them. I was trying to save as many as I could. What the hell are you doing here anyway, Cole wondered, how he could be sitting so nonchalantly in a federal fueling station. The federal soldier out there is my nephew. You think you're our only eyes and ears, Eli asked, shaking his head at Cole. I'm sorry, Eli. I'll get her out, Cole assured him. Ashamed his team had been involved in the mission that killed William and captured Cassidy. How are you going to do that without giving yourself up?

I don't know, but I'll figure it out, Cole assured him. Cassidy told me about this woman you were going to meet, Eli admitted. If Cassidy told you, why the hell didn't you get them out in time? Why were they still there? Cole accused him. Eli looked to the ground, frustrated he couldn't have controlled the situation. William and his damned work. Eli took a long pull from his drink. His eyes stared blankly at the wall. Then he came back wondering, what about this woman? Is she the right person for the job?

I don't know, Cole admitted. What does your gut tell you? We can't let William's death be in vain, Eli prodded, hoping they had found someone to carry the flame. My guts tell me she's the one we've been looking for. She has a legend. She has spirit. She's a fighter.

And although she may be hard to control, she is loyal. That can always be leveraged, Cole explained. Then what's the problem, Eli wondered. The problem is she killed William, Cole explained. What, Eli questioned, absolutely stunned by the information. She shot him and splattered his brains all over Cassidy's face, Cole admitted. Eli questioned, absolutely stunned by the information. She shot him and splattered his brains all over Cassidy's face, Cole admitted. She's a refugee. She's not allowed to be armed, Eli stated in confusion. William had the drop on a fed, and Erica took the young man's gun and saved the soldier,

Cole explained. Then we'll have to find someone else, Eli concluded. Who, Cole wondered. Cassidy can do it, Eli suggested. God knows Cassidy has the strength, but she's been with the militia since day one. Erica is a victim of the system we're fighting to destroy. Plus, Cassidy doesn't have Erica's legend. She can't work a room like Erica. I don't know, Eli admitted, unsure what to do. People are dying, Eli. Something has to end this, Cole insisted, tired of the pain he had carried for too long.

I'm not working with the person who killed my best friend, Eli concluded stubbornly. We're out of options. Do you want war? Eli's sad eyes met Cole's. I want my friend and his daughter back. I can't save your friend, but I can save his daughter. I promise you that. But you have to promise me you'll talk to Dixon about Erica, Cole requested. And say what? She killed the man who's been our biggest influencer? That's exactly why we need her now more than ever, Cole countered. You want her? You fight the battle and count the

militia out, Eli responded. At least think about it, Cole pleaded. I'll inform Dixon of the situation. Let me know your plans for Cassidy, Eli agreed. I will. Cole paused for a moment, making eye contact with Eli. I'm sorry how things went down. Eli nodded at him. Me too. I know you would have changed it if you could have. The two men shook hands before Cole assured him, we'll talk soon. He left Eli there to rejoin his men.

The ride home was a quiet, somber event, as Cole strategized a way to achieve his goals without exposing himself. On the brink of blackouts again, as power demand reached an all-time record high overnight, slivers of the Golden State plunged into darkness. This calm season expects to continue with Stage 6, throwing blackouts for the rest of the week. He scheduled outage on Thursday, but the one that happened Sunday, it wasn't scheduled.

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to backup power. You're listening to PBN. Your path back the stability here Hello and welcome back to the Changing Earth podcast. This is episode number, I have no idea, 453. Yeah, long pause. 453, season 15, episode 52. So we're all the way down to episode 52 on 52 right yeah i can't believe 450

some odd podcasts done down just cruising cruising my pleasure oh changing earth audio drama another podcast uh that has episode four live now so that's our first four block and i'm not ready to announce it just yet but i do have a special surprise in store for um the finales this season so last season we did the bloopers and uh i think i'm as long as i can um wrangle enough of the performers together at one time and synchronize schedules uh might have a fun idea coming together and dave jones is going to be involved in that and so we'll have a big announcement on what's going on there so just you know i'm an author i like to leave you in suspense, that kind of thing. Big news. Well, let me, of course, mention Prepper Camp, Prepper Camp tickets. I just saw that the keynote speaker was released on LinkedIn.

I saw that there. So that's cool. And definitely have to get over to Prepper Camp this year, guys. Always a blast. You will not regret the decision to make the trip out there so get on get your planning done and get out there big news for me and my end of the world is here comes barrel i just had a feeling that yeah they were like oh it's gonna just keep going west into mexico and everything's gonna be good it's not gonna i was like yeah is it you know i just had this feeling that nah it really

wasn't going to and uh sure enough the right turn blinker on huh yeah exactly and not enough of it either um not enough right to turn blinker so um it's actually coming up well they put like the eye of it right over the town that's just south of us i was just like seriously okay we've lived here a long time we haven't gotten hit by any of the hurricanes along the way um it's always seemed like this really really sweet spot but uh barrelrow is definitely, yeah, just attracted, you know. So Barrow was the first hurricane ever to be so powerful so far east. Barrow was also the biggest hurricane recorded in the month of June so already breaking um some records there it has a pattern really really similar to how Harvey came in so we're definitely saying prayers for everyone down

in Galveston down in Houston um hopefully everybody is taking the appropriate precautions it's really supposed to come in just mean and nasty. So the big worry for our area is, of course, going to be the rainfall. We just got our pool up. We're going to have to be letting water out by the masses. But we're in a good area. We're already really, I mean, we had some good sun. So it did dry up a bit.

But we already got really, really saturated the beginning of this year. So it'll just be interesting to see what happens with that amount of rain. Now, I've heard stories of, like, it came in and flooded so bad in these areas, there was, like, a crocodile out behind the shopping mall and stuff. Alligator. Yeah. Oh, I'm sorry. Yeah, an alligator. One of those crawly.

Talking to Ellen too much. Yeah, bite you animals. No kidding. So, yeah. So it'll just be interesting. It's going to be a wild ride. It's going to be fun. So keep me in your prayers.

You know, Monday night, Tuesday, it's supposed to hit us. So there we go. Well, we just heard the chapter of Virgis. Monday night, Tuesday, it's supposed to hit us. So, there we go. Well, we just heard the chapter of Virgis. This was kind of like a regroup chapter a little bit. It's some air conditioning and whiskey. Yeah, right? Air conditioning and whiskey.

So, a moment to kind of clear head. But we got the issue going on with monroe he's keeping secrets from virgus and um that eli is there when he stops for gas and uh it's like time to face the pay the piper a little bit right what happened and so some serious stuff went down we're getting revved up to coming to the end of the book. So, yeah. Choosing your hard. I saw a meme this week that really struck a chord with me. You know, and it was like, if you choose or, you know, if you're going to work out, it's going to be hard.

But not exercising is also hard on your body. Right? Right. Yeah. So, you know, working, going to a job every day, it's going to be hard, but not working and being homeless is also really hard. So, you know, you can look at this and it's really choosing your hard and being prepared, um, you know, being conscientious of what your family needs and these hard times and things like that. That's hard. But choosing not to be prepared is also going to be really hard. So choosing your hard, right? I love that. I just loved like the yin and yang, the secrecy of it. I've just never really thought about things that way. And I was like, yeah, yeah, we're always choosing, choosing what it is. So life presents us many, many, many choices to choose from along the way.

And, you know, it seems like more and more, I don't know if it's because the next generation didn't have as much like interpersonal social contact but um they seem to be a little bit more lost in like analysis paralysis and stuff like that and uh you know listeners to my podcast what i'm thinking of is that you guys are the next leadership you, you guys, if something breaks down, something goes really bad, at least if you're engaged and you're learning this information, you're going to have these skills in your pocket that a lot of people don't. And when you are a leader, you're going to make decisions. And those are going to be hard decisions, just like Virgis, right?'s it's not gonna be like um what am i gonna eat for dinner tonight so that's a hard decision sometimes it is right and it happens every single day it drives me

be thankful right that's true that's c right Because it's hard to choose what you're going to have. But guess what? Not having anything will be a much better choice. Be harder. Yeah. Yeah. Choose your hard. So it really takes care of a lot of the victimization, I think, of just thinking about choose your hard.

You know, if it wasn't this way, it'd be that way. So all life's an adventure. it'd be that way so all life's an adventure so um but i really like to uh hone my material thinking from leadership because we need good people in community roles doing good things when we're in a collapse scenario or else we're in big trouble so hopefully you know that's the community i've really centered on trying to develop over all these years. 450 some odd episodes, you know. So these decisions will be more like, do I take the life of this guy that's coming in at us? Right.

Yeah. That was one of the things that really even prompted me to write Day After Disaster was thinking through these scenarios and going, wow, you know, the choices you'd have to make. How blessed are we to be in a country where we've never really had to seriously think about that for the most part? You know, there's big cities where, you know, you're living in fear, I guess. But is it as bad as Venezuela was? Like when we talked to that one gentleman who lives over in Spain now? Where you're packing, worried about getting shot at while you're mowing your lawn? Fernando?

Yeah, Fernando. Yeah. I just don't think that we've really, so if the decisions we're facing now are not that perilous, like, and you can't make a decision now, it's going to be really rough then. And you're going to have to understand that your decisions have consequences. That's why everybody gets scared about decisions because they don't want to face like the consequences of their decisions. And it's not always easy to live with, that's for sure. But you just have to own it.

So on that note, you've got to stand for something. Or you'll fall for anything. For nothing at all. Right? Or you will fall for anything. It's a great song. I love that quote. Great song. I love that quote.

And our goal, and my belief, our goal is that as a human species, we should be looking how to better ourselves by bettering each one of ourselves to be more enlightened and more positive and spreading the word of the creator. you know, spreading the word of the creator. And doing that will allow our species to be able to evolve to a better place where we're not so, you know, namby-pamby over every little thing in life, it seems like these days, you know, so divided. The only problem with that is, is being somebody who wants to bring a lot of love and wants to bring a lot of light and you think you see that in other people and sometimes you just don't and they're there to hurt you so you have to be also aware that not everybody is on board with you and making your decisions is going to be based on that those facts right that's

why we do all the area intelligence so this analysis paralysis though we've talked about this for years because it does seem to be a reoccurring problem i try not to let out like oh i'm in analysis paralysis i just got to choose and go. Just choose and go, you know? And as long as those actions are firmly rooted in what I believe, I always ask, what would Jesus do, right? The values of love and respect for our planet, for fellow people, for the inhabitants of this planet, as long as all of your decisions are based there, then you're doing pretty good.

Yeah, kind of a litmus test. Right? Exactly. Like, time to check myself and be like, hey, am I following what Jesus would do? Now, in a situation where somebody's going to like harm you or whatnot, you know, obviously you're not going to be like, okay,

turn the other cheek. That's when it's time to self defense up. But that you're not the one who's going out and attacking people who's going out looking to hurt people. So there's a difference in my mind between, okay, this action was necessary because we had to defend rather than you know so there's a lot of debate as far as like oh your best defense is a good

offense i'm not a military strategist i'm just looking at it more of what do we do to protect our communities and get along and the more prepared communities that we have that are working together, then they can help other communities. And if you don't fit in with this community, then you can go over to that community, you know? So that's kind of how I'm looking at it as far as, you know. Well, kind of normal life, but good offense is staying alert, aware, right? Right.

Yes. Yeah. And so that's your offense yeah exactly that you're not just walking through with your blinders on waiting to get attacked oh i was talking about side note squirrel i'm sorry but i was talking to my martial arts instructor and he does private lessons and stuff like that you know and he's like if i get one more private lesson because somebody was almost kidnapped i'm just gonna go off i was like wow not what i want to hear in our area i would think right yeah yeah so it's legit guys it's everywhere like really have to be self defense aware and you have to be teaching i'm sorry to say it this way but you have to be teaching the females in your life this too they can't get away with like oh well i don't want to get sweaty and my hand might get bruised well Well, guess what? 30 seconds, 30 seconds and your life can be completely altered. So, um, yeah, that can't be just the guys like, oh, well I'll be with my woman.

Well, what are we that society where a woman can't go out without a man because she can't defend herself no we're not that society you know so um please that's my little public service announcement and the older people i mean reality you can't like if if you're a couple and you're both work full-time how could you can't you can't always be with each other right yeah. It's my job to defend the family. Well, what if you're not there? Yeah. So I can't go on this business meeting. My husband's got to work today. Yeah.

That's not realistic. And then you're just walking in your car, heading your cell phone, and boom. So, yeah. Everybody, that's got to be done. It's self-defense has got to be one of the paramount things in your prepping plan. So even if you base these decisions

in the strongest moral ground that you can possibly summon as an individual, you might have to do things you know some even if somebody attacked me and i defended myself but they got seriously hurt because of me of course i'm not gonna like you know be in tears because i hurt somebody but there's still gonna be that part of me that's like that feels bad you know because i had to take those actions um because we couldn't work through it in a different way so you're gonna always be you know stuck with that emotional feeling and god knows the motions are getting in our way right now we need to be clear heads clear heads you know so again choose So again, choose your heart. You can choose to get kidnapped or whatever.

Or you can choose to defend yourself and that person might get hurt because of it. But you can't live in that guilt because you made your choice. You choose your heart. Nothing is just like... We think as Americans, in my opinion that um everything's supposed to be like sunshine and rainbows and we're never supposed to have any challenges and whatnot and every bit of the right am i wrong you know but every bit of those challenges is what makes us really really strong every challenge you have to go through makes you learn and think. And every interaction with somebody that you have

to have, you know, integrates those into your communication skills and things like that. So every single opportunity, no matter how uncomfortable you feel, no matter how whatever happens, is a learning experience for you that you're going to cherish, you're going to take on, and maybe not cherish it, but you're going to own that're going to take on and maybe not cherish it but you're going to own that you should own that and then apply that knowledge to your future um and that's how you get stuck in the past by not doing that and just staying stuck in that moment i'm like i'm like guru sarah today sorry guys i went deep today i was like yeah I've been thinking about a lot of this stuff you know so it's spirit time with Sarah and a magic carpet right yeah it's true you know but I mean if you're going to always just trust

people that for your moral standing um that's not gonna work uh you have to have it based in a strong um respect for whatever god you're worshiping you know as long as that's very positive um course you have to be honest in your observation of people right i mean don't just say oh he's gonna be a nice guy i mean watch and listen yeah to how the what he says and or what they say and how they act to make your judgments actions speak much louder than words and like we were saying last week with the debate, questioning. You know, let people just, you know, talk to you. Ask them questions instead of just

spewing forth your stuff from your mouth and giving them all kinds of information along the way about yourself. You know, ask them questions. Yeah, don't superimpose what you want it to be like yeah actually observe to see what it is yes and that's so much easier said than done i mean we're all like in our little

world and maybe something happened today and you're preoccupied about that and you know you're just like oh this this person's gonna be cool and and this, that, and the other, and I can trust them. And then, boom. You know. The status quo. Yeah. Yeah. Okay.

So what holds you back from making decisions? Because that's really what we're up against now, right? It's like, okay, so we're going to base our decisions in the best possible light we can. We're going to base our decisions in the best possible light we can. We're going to live that way. We're going to try and be always reaching that better place and just replicating what would Jesus do in his vast wisdom. And so how do we make those decisions along the way when we have so much going on in our heads

and we have so much going on in our lives and we make ourselves believe we don't have choices sometimes, which we absolutely do. So one of the things that holds people back, this is from Psychology Today. And again, I only took this as I'm going to have some major problems with some of their stuff. I'm just going to caveat that right now. This is going to be nothing like their article.

Fear of failure so they they talk about um parenting like this is all they go into parenting and how you were raised like oh because your parents reprimanded you for making the wrong decision Now you don't want to make decisions in your life. Okay. First of all, get a backup. How's that working out? Yeah. Like, okay. It's time to grow up.

All right. Like I said, the past is there for us to learn from, to garner experiences from. There's no loss. There's no, you know, man, even if you screwed it up so bad, well, you learned not to do that again, right? Man, that pan was hot. Yeah, I mean, you learned to not do that again, you know. I think I'll use the oven mitts.

Oh, well, that person broke my heart. Well, how did that happen? Mm-hmm. Right? Was there something you missed along the way i mean this can all be learning experiences no matter how painful it is um people like didn't you talk about walking down the driveway without shoes on yes thank you for letting the whole listenership know that but yeah and uh that. That was hot. I got like halfway down.

I'm like, I should really have had shoes on. I had no choice but to continue on. So, yeah, I'm going to be putting shoes on in the future. It's 100 some odd in Texas. Yeah.

People like Carrie, who's doing the Mom's Day bunkers. Her story is rough. Man. I mean, what an individual to be able to take that experience and not be like,

oh, my life was so horrible and now I'm just going to wallow in misery. She was like, two is one, three is more. Yeah. I mean, she's a warrior. She's a warrior. Yeah. Oh.

And talk about embrace the adventure because that gave her all of her wisdom to be able to go forward, do this show, help other people. And do a show, right? Talk to her. Not just like hide from the experience. Like she talks to other moms with similar heartbreaking experiences. Right. That's what I'm talking about. Like, wow.

You know, so you can choose. Again, it's your choice. Choose your heart. You're going to choose either to learn from that experience and press on. And yeah, I'm not saying that like it's not like the pain of what you went through is not going to be there. And that's hard. Don't think she's a stronger person for dealing with it. Yes.

Yeah. It's like you go into the gym. So you could pick up your groceries a lot easier than somebody that just is a couch potato right right and she could deal with with mental distress a lot easier because she she deals with it works her way through it exactly to hide from it yep that's why it's like embrace the adventure of life we're literally the stars of our show like Like, what do you want your, you know, what do you want it to be? It is. You're writing your own narrative right now.

So embrace that and embrace the adventure of it instead of being like, oh, wow, everything sucks. This is nothing. And it just doesn't seem like that's just where everybody's stuck right now i mean people have their jobs everywhere it's like oh oh well my job sucks i have to stay here every day well okay would you rather not have one and be sitting on the river somewhere broke wondering where you're gonna eat food you know um yeah i mean let's make the world a better place okay so there's i told you i was going to go off on this their second one is parenting influence so the first one was basically all about like how your

parents screwed you up and now they're going to say like okay your parents screwed you up even more overbearing parents that made decisions for you so you never learn to make your own decisions how weak are you like come on guys we all just say like okay i'm finally out of my own i can make my own decisions now, right? Right. And guess what? Parents are supposed to make decisions for children. I know, but it's like, okay, yay, I'm out on my own. It's like, I can decide this, that, the other thing.

And if you choose to be sitting next to the river, then that's the choice you made. You know? You see how the van life was such a thing, and now they're like, they're turning back to apartment life. Yeah, right? Makes for a good vacation, but maybe not a good place to stay. So another facet that I have about this parental thing is like weren't you watching your parents at all were you not learning like how they did things and like well that didn't work yeah for the good and the bad right exactly exactly like wow they

really excelled here i'm gonna make sure i do that with my life and over here well right they're people too you have this wealth of experience to learn from and you're just gonna be like oh well they just always made decisions for me so now i can't make them and i'm just worthless no yeah no that's not true not true Okay. Number three on the list is perfectionism. Now this is something I can attest to. It leads to anxiety, depression, and burnout. And I don't disagree. I do agree with this one. I'm going to use this example. When people ask me, wow, how you wrote a book. You didn't write just one book.

You wrote like 10 books. Like, how did you do that? Like, how did you write a book? I always wanted to write a book. I can't write a book. I'm like, everybody can write a book. All you got to do is start. And then you have to finish.

And that's it. I'm telling you, that's it. Okay? Because whatever is between those two pages can be edited and edited and re-edited and polished and polished and polished. Right? But eventually it has to be published. So as long as you start somewhere, you can always work on getting better along the way the first season of the audio drama is good but the fourth season is rocking you know

because i didn't sound effect soundtrack right i didn't sit there going well i don't know it's gotta be perfect before i can get it out there i went yeah i want to do this let's do it you know so um don't let the perfect get in the way you have to just start and end and i always call it polishing the turd because like as long as you made the turd like you can polish that thing up and sell it for money. I'm sure of it. Or have your story, have your book, whatever you wanted to do with that. And life is a lot the same way. If you have a goal of doing something, well, get at it.

You'll get better along the way i mean did you know everything there was to know about every facet of homesteading life that you're facing now you know before you did you say do i or am i still learning yeah right you're still learning right and like you but you just gotta do it you just gotta cut that first board. Yes. Dig that first hole. You got to plant that first seed. You just got to do it. Yeah.

And if you cut it wrong. And solve it. Goes well. And solve it. Yeah. Now trip the loaves. It's all good. It's all good.

We learned how not to do it. Now we're going to do it. You know? Yep. 100%. So I don't really like quotes from Thomas Edison. But, you know, Edison tried 100 different ways to make the light bulb. What did he find out?

99 ways not to do it. You know? Right. I mean, that's what it's all about, guys. So don't let the, you know, I have to research. I have to do this. I have to do that. That's never a bad thing.

But don't let that stop you from actually choosing and going i'm starting yeah exactly yeah people are like overwhelmed like i don't even know where to start to write a book what you start with one word on a piece of paper yeah and then that word becomes two and then it stop you okay you're a people pleaser so i've i totally agree with this one as well um my mom told me when i was young that there's always going to be people in this world that like you and there's always going to be people in this world that don't and there's nothing you can do about it yep but you cannot please everybody so that is fruitless even try and if you're constantly making your decisions based on what you think other people want you to do

you're basing them off of information that you don't even know because that's an assumption you don't know what they're thinking you don't know what's really under there nobody does unless you're telepathic i mean so um that's why firmly rooting yourself in a set of moral values that is unbreakable is the best way that you can make sure that your decisions are um for good right for for a positive future for making things better um you just don't know what people are thinking so that's just and they don't know everything that's going into your decision making right they're they're like why did he wear jeans today well maybe because you, what he was going to do that day required that he needed something to protect his legs and it wasn't a short stay, you know? Right. Exactly. They don't know everything that's going on in your life.

It certainly would make it easier, though, if we did know everything like that. That would be much easier. Well, just ask google yeah oh ai i'm sure ai's got the answer for us yeah chat bot yeah okay um losing social media though yeah that rolls right into this one losing sight of the bigger picture right into this one losing sight of the bigger picture so you know that social media um even media and stuff they try to like pull you into the details and fire your emotions up so hard that you can never get out of that realm of thinking um you have to pull back you have to be able to see bigger picture things of what's going on. Because like you say, you don't know everything that's going into that decision making process. So we don't know why certain billionaires or whatever are doing certain things. They're playing chess on four levels, you know.

And so if you get lost in that detail, you can just get totally run over. And, you know, in your own life, you should have goals. Write it down. It's undeniable then. Like, what is your mission statement for yourself right now? For your relationship? For your kids? For your community? Write that down so that when you start going down the road of accomplishing that goal, you don't get stuck in the details and then never get the goal accomplished because you squirreled off on part two, you know. So this is, I could see this being really important, especially, you know, during a collapse. There's going to be a lot of really important things that communities have to take care of that we haven't had to think about for a long time. And so having a specific goal of what has to be accomplished to provide the best standard of living for your community, that will be really important to have a good grip on.

And yourself, you know, always yourself. You should definitely have a goal for yourself. Unless your goal is to like be goalless and just meander around like aimlessly like exist in the zen yes law i mean um lack of confidence so i i'm going to be dead honest. This is something I've never really struggled with. I get, choose your heart though. There's times, you know, open mouth, insert foot. You know, confidence, you know, overconfidence can be a bad thing as well. That leads to arrogance. That leads to pride.

So there has to be a balance and a temperance of your thing as well that leads to arrogance that leads to pride so there has to be a balance and a temperance of your confidence as well um but confidence is gained by positive self-talk and experience so one of the things that i've noticed is people are not only bad mouthing the world and everything around them but they're also bad mouthing the world and everything around them, but they're also bad mouthing themselves. People ask me sometimes, like when I was teaching martial arts, especially and stuff like, you know, why are you so hard on us? It's like, well, if you think I'm hard on you, imagine what I do to myself. Right? Because that is definitely an outward display. So you have to give yourself credit. You have to give yourself celebrations.

You really need to stop this negative self-talk. You need to look yourself in the mirror. Tell yourself how amazing you are. You're one of God's children. He knows how many hairs are on your head. Everybody is special. Everybody has their spot. So in my household, we're not allowed to do self-put-downs.

You can pick on other people, that's fine. But you can't pick on yourself, because that's just not healthy. And then experience. So the only way to get experience is to get experience to make those choices to go and get experience. If you have a goal, talk to somebody who's already there, who's already accomplished that goal. They're going to already know the do's and don'ts along the way, and somebody's always willing to share. You just have to keep reaching out. You'll find the right person.

So be aware as well. There's a lot of really scary stories coming out of Hollywood of mentors gone wrong, things like that. So, of course, you're situationally aware, you have your hat on your shoulders, you have your goals in mind, and you have your boundaries set. Okay, so that one brings us right into the fact of you lack proper knowledge of the subject. So from a leadership point of view, you are not going to be an expert on everything, but you might be really good. Yeah.

You might be really good, like the jack of all trades, master of none, right? Or you're just really good with interpersonal skills. You're good at organizing. You're good at getting people to work together, that kind of thing. So you know yourself and if you want to be smarter in an area, pick up a book. We've got the internet, like keep teaching yourself, keep learning. It keeps you young. Um, invest in yourself and your skills. So take time to invest in yourself, your personal growth. What do you want to learn next? It's really good for your spirit, your soul,

but it also helps you make those decisions in the future. Like, I know I can do this, but I know I can't do that. So I'm going to appoint, right? I'm going to appoint this person. Okay, we were just talking about canning um in the green room right because i'm canning right now right and uh the pressure i'm i'm kind of an accident prone person um uh i can break things and screw things up really easily so pressure canning is not something i do i delegate that over to brock because i know I don't want to blow a hole through my kitchen,

you know? So my experience, I know this. I've done enough stuff to know, like, especially when the canner hasn't been used in a while and needs that maintenance. Those are the skills I don't have. He's got those skills. So knowing yourself, your skills. And then if I wanted to know, I could definitely research.

I could do like a mini class with him where he taught me how to do all of that. That would be great. I probably should at this point, you know. But that's educating yourself. That's investing in yourself. It doesn't have to be like a huge money expenditure. Oh, no. Especially with the resources that we have right now

at this point in time in the world. Exactly. I've done stuff like repaired my tractor, repaired the truck, just done stuff, worked on the house, which I would have never thought I could do, but

you research it and you just do it. Yeah. You got to start somewhere. Yeah. We used to have the Chilton's books. Now we got YouTube. Oh yeah. You know,

we got like video of people doing it. Yeah. Right. I watched the video about five times. So then I go out with the Chilton's and crawl under there and get all greasy. Yeah. I mean, yeah. And there's just,

I mean, if you want there's just, I mean, if you want to be more financially savvy, there is all kinds of information out there. If you want to know more about area intelligence, there's all kinds of information. If you, I mean, obviously you're here.

So, uh, you know, let's, let's keep learning together. Okay. The last two, I hate,

I hate. So here we go. Yeah. You have a boo domain.omania it's called abu a b o u d o m a m a m a m a m a m a m a m a m a m a m a m a m a m a m a m a m a m a m a m a m a m a m a m a m a m a m a m a m a m a m a m a m a m a m a m a m a m a m a m a m a m a m a m a m a m a m a m a m a m a m a m a m a m a m a m a m a m a m a m a m a m a m a m a m a m a m a m a m a m a m a m a m a m a m a m a m a m a m a m a m a m a m a m a m a m a m a m a m a m a m a m a m a m a m a m a m a m a m a m a m a m a m a m a m a m a m a m a m a m a m a m a m a m a m a m a m a m a m a m a m a m a m a m a m a m a m a m a m a m a m a m a m a m a m a m a m a m a m a m a m a m a m a m a m a m a m a m a m a m a m a m a m a m a m a m a m a m a m a m a m a m a m a m a m a m a m a m a m a m a m a m a m a m a m a m a m a m a m a m a m a m a m a m a m a m a m a m a m a m a m a m a m a m a m a m a m a m a m a m a m a m a m a m a m a m a m a and I'm sure there's a pill to fix it to make it easier for you to make decisions because there's a magic pill for everything and so yes yeah so you could have a serious um abdominia or just a mental health disorder where you can't um make decisions properly and I'm sure there's a pill for that too um i don't believe in magic pills um so i i'm much more an advocate of look inward what do you not like where are your weaknesses start turning them into strengths because that's just going to help you be a better person in the long run.

Choosing your hard. I love that. I love it. I'm like, yep, my kids are going to get so sick of that. I always tell them, you can have excuses or results. You can't have both. So what do you got? I don't know. You can't have both. So what do you got? I don't know.

You can't have both. So choose your heart. All right, we are way behind, and I've got good Changing Earth news, so let's jump into it. Dream. Survive. Thrive.

This is Changing Earth News. All right, Changing Earth News. thrive this is changing earth news all right changing earth news today is july 7th of 2024 um we have had some solar activity m class storm coming from plasma releases from the sun we talked about that last week. There is a huge sunspot inbound. They have technology. So if the sunspot is really big, they can detect it on the other side of the sun before it even turns in to face us, which is really cool.

And guess what? There is a big one coming and it should be popping out right about the time hurricane barrels coming in so yay um so if you haven't been following change at earth news if solar we have a solar event while we have the hurricane ongoing it can literally supercharge up that storm um the solar activity always supercharges our storms and that would be very bad so we're going to hope that one's just going to come around it's going to stay quiet they haven't seen like any x-class flares coming off the other side or anything so we'll just have to see what that looks like

and cross that bridge when we get there all right july 1st 2024 371 earthquakes are 2.0 or bigger biggest of which was a 5.3 in the philippine sea by tokyo japan northern italy got hit with more severe flooding switzerland was also affected it left at least seven people dead over there and otivaibia, they were receiving emergency drought relief, food rations and water rations. They're having a severe drought over there. So as I've been preaching, it is the world of extremes. You know, as bad a rainstorms as could be happening right next door to them, we got droughts going on and everything is just dry and hot and cracked so um welcome to the world of extremes i don't see that relenting anytime soon um until we get

some of our until we finish our pole uh movement and get some of our magnetic shielding back and it's gonna be a wild ride until that happens. So strapping tight. Phoenix, Arizona, hit by a dust storm. They've been having quite a few of those. They do still have some wildfires burning out in Arizona big time. Brazoria County, Australia, they're having lots of wildfires there. That is eastern Australia.

So we keep eyes on that july 2nd 2024 there was 423 earthquakes that were two oh and keep in mind let me back it up just one second keep in mind that the southern hemisphere is in the wintertime so those are wildfires happening in the wintertime down there um july 2nd 2024 423 earthquakes are 2.0 or bigger biggest of which was a 5.2 in the band of sea near indonesia kansas city was hit with some severe flooding india's northeast uh part of the country had flash flooding that killed 16 people venezuela is experiencing flooding flooding because hurricane barreleryl went through, caused everything to flood there. The Caribbean was also hit by Beryl.

It came in as a Cat 5 when it hit the Caribbean. The Caribbean got scoured. There are some really, really heartbreaking stories coming out of that, of the Caribbean area. The Greek island of Kos is having wildfire activity as well as Greece itself. So we're keeping eyes on that. On July 3rd, 2024, there was 393 earthquakes,

our 2.0 or bigger, biggest of which was a 5.3 in Chile. There was a 5.3 in the Gulf of California. Southern China, the severe flooding down there is just continuing to go aggro um and i've got my tinfoil hat story for you so i know i i just threw this out there i have no idea if this is warranted or not i'm just like totally uh this is totally temple hat i haven't heard it this is just my brain working so we had the flooding that affected dubai and we know it is because they flew that plane over that supercharged the atmosphere it's that's legit that is fact um they were testing new way of cloud seeding. And guess what?

It really worked. So if you wanted to cripple a country, a world, and you wanted to take out its food supplies, you might cause severe flooding in areas like Brazil, the Midwest of the United States, Southern China, Northern Italy. It's just kind of ironic after how many food production facilities we have mystically exploded and then every one of the bread baskets in the world

is suddenly flooding with massive flooding events that hasn't happened in ever in some areas in china they have records that go back for these capital cities thousands of years and it's the worst flooding that's intense so i'm just throwing it out there uh just kind of the theory i've been working on that i was like huh that's interesting to look at the correlation. Lagos, Nigeria, heavy downpour, flash flooding there. Flooding all along the Missouri River, not good. The flooding in the Midwest is a really bad situation.

Fort Peck Dam is up in Montana. If that thing goes, I mean, it could just be hellish scenario for the Mississippi Valley. Missouri River feeds the Mississippi so it looks like flooding there. If that were to flood out, that's our real breadbasket of the United States.

Definitely keep an eye on that situation. North Carolina, you said you're getting some rain today, but I did see the story, though, that you guys have been really, really hot. Lack of rain causing some crops to go. Yeah. It's been brutal hot.

Yeah. Extremes, right? Welcome to the extremes. So they were calling for a drought emergency declaration over there. July 4th, 4th of July, Independence Day, Happy Treason Day, 355 earthquakes that were 2.0 or bigger, biggest of which was a 5.6 in the North Pacific Ocean by Canada. That's up in the Cascadias in that region.

The 5.7 of swarming still continuing out there in Cascadia in that region. The 5.7 swarming still continuing out there in Cascadia fault. It is a fault line that's just west of Canada region up there. So by Washington. So it's been really, really active. They're

worried about a major earthquake there that would cause a tsunami to hit the west coast of the United States. So it's really important we keep our eyes on that one. Mount Etna in Italy erupted. They have some really cool pictures of the infrared of the pyroclastic flows coming off and then hitting the water, which is really, really neat. Severe flooding affecting 1.6 million people in Assam, India. This is a big humanitarian nightmare. All I watched was those numbers climb

as I did my research. So prayers go out to everybody affected by that and really all over the world. Bangladesh also getting severe flooding. One million people affected there. And then Jamaica was hit by burl they weren't sure if it was going to actually hit jamaica or not but it did that's when it started climbing north and that's when it took on its texas trajectory july 5th 2024 there was 400 earthquakes that were

2.0 or bigger biggest of which was a 5.3 in the north Pacific Ocean by Canada. That's still the Cascadia, still continuing to make noise. And also Mount Rainier started having swarming events of earthquakes as well. Swarm events when it comes to earthquakes are like minor earthquakes, but there's a bunch of them, right? So we're talking like little 0.5, 0.2, those types of thing, but a lot of them. So that's always kind of a pre indicator of a bigger earthquake coming, or it could just be releasing stress. And that's perfectly fine. So just just requires a little bit more eyes on the situation. Um, let's see barrel hit Cancun, they had like eight feet of rain,

severe wind, they got just clobbered as barrel came through balochistan hit by a dust storm so i was like where the heck is balochistan so it is it's actually um i part of it is in iran afghanistan and pakistan it's this area and it's historically known as balochistan. So, I had a big windstorm event over there. California is lighting up. It is having some historically hot weather, and, of course, that is going to cause wildfires there. They got like 30,000 people displaced right now due to fire activity. On July 6th of 2024, 350 earthquakes, or 2.0 or bigger,

biggest of which was a 5.5 in the south china sea near the philippines mount etna continues eruption and stromboli decided to join along with it as well so they had pyroclastic flows coming from each of those volcano volcanoes over there in italy um there was a dam that failed in Wisconsin um heavy rain and flooding caused evacuations in the Milwaukee area it was the Manawa dam so um a lot you know this is just putting stress I mean those dams were all made like a hundred years ago they really needed to be updated and our money just hasn't seemed to be going back into actually building back better huh so um they're all they're all primed to fail right now it's really not a

good situation we're we're gonna have to pull our heads out of our rears and start addressing some of it in the united states not sending all our money elsewhere anyway that's neither here nor there um in nepal 47 people lost their life uh during the flooding and landsliding there they had massive infrastructure damage um in california the french fire in mariposa County caused evacuations, 840 acres in that fire. And today, July 7th, 368 earthquakes are 2.0 or bigger so far. There's a 6.1 in the Philippine Sea near Tokyo, Japan. There's cold fronts and severe wind impacting South Africa. They're expecting rain and snow down there which is unusual guys

like there's this um ski resort in south africa that only opens up like once every 15 years or something and because they don't get snow on it that often it's like if it happens people from europe like boom they're buying tickets to go down there and ski it and everything and looks like it might happen again this year so we'll have to see um if that actually takes place um california santa barbara county lake fire 13,250 acres uh there's a pay fire in el dorado county that i just picked that one up because that's you know my former hometown there so um that one's out by the airport if you're listening garden girl that's uh that's a quickly growing fire um and then the west just in general washington starting to light up oregon will you know because it's just so hot out there and then like i said barrel is headed

directly my way so we'll just see what happens as far as your rain barrel yeah exactly like the pool is we could empty it and just refill it um that would be kind of interesting to see how much rain would actually fill up the pool because it did just the other day from the storms coming through um as far as volcanoes erupting there are 33 volcanoes actively erupting, 28 showing minor activity, 25 showing up unrest. The erupting number is high, not the highest we've seen because we've now seen 34, but it's still really high comparatively to what a normal is. Maybe this is just the new normal.

I hate to bring that terminology back. But it did remain steady from last week. We didn't add anything. We didn't subtract anything. You know, the ones that went down, other ones started erupting. So it's exactly the same numbers. Most of them are erupting in Indonesia. As far as the wild wildfires we're at a preparedness level three there are 51 large active fires burning in the united states right now 413,333 acres on fire eight from this is coming from eight new fires four of them are contained the number one state for wildfire activity right now is alaska they have 27 fires actively burning for a total of three 322 000 acres they have no new fires but none of these fires are contained at this time they've got lots

of trees that you know i mean you don't want it to see it burn down but usually it's fairly healthy for an ecosystem to go through a burn period um number two state is California. They have eight fires actively burning for a total of 32,101 acres. They have one new fire and two contained. And honestly, they're doing really good this year. They're getting them out very, very quickly. We've seen California numbers up in the millions of acres. So we definitely don't want to see that. But like as far as perspective goes, they're doing very good this year with getting them out just as really as quickly as they can. New Mexico is number three on the list with four active wildfires for a total of 28,107 acres. They have one new. None of these fires are contained.

And number four on the list is Washington. Four fires, 11 11 570 acres this is coming from two new fires and none of those fires are contained all righty well i will next week our show is on um preparing for a mega storm so i am in like the prime position to be learning as we go take those notes that's right that's right so when we touch base next week i'll i'll be able to be like well you need a raft oh speaking of the raft okay so we've been talking about like having a boat in your attic for tsunami or whatever how could you get out kind of thing um they now have this it's like a bounce house that you go inside have you seen that no i mean i know what a bounce house is yeah right so but it's like a bounce house you go inside of. It's like you can camp in there and whatnot.

And it can ride the tsunami and you stay alive. Nice. I know. I was like, I totally need one of these. Like, we are going to live in the bounce house. I don't even need that tequila now, Chin. I got it all figured out. I'm sure it only costs like... You might want to put a bottle inside the bounce house.

Right? I'm sure it only costs like $ hundred thousand dollars or something you know no big deal everybody can afford that it's like chump change right i would you're right are you right yeah yeah you know so yeah look at look it up though that it's pretty cool man i was like yes because i was thinking you know you need like a a bobber or something that you could go inside of it so it always belongs up to the top well somebody was thinking the same thing it's pretty cool a little it's pretty cool it is rubber so again you know you have like the puncture risk but it's built for tsunamis.

So whatever they're putting on there must be pretty darn stout. Yeah. All righty. Well, looks good. Well, maybe you can get next day delivery from Amazon. Right? I think we'll be okay. I mean, we're on a hill. We have to be pretty darn serious.

So, but I don't see any questions in the chat. So guys, if you want to come over and subscribe, that's awesome. Come on over, changingearthseries.com. Help the changing earth go around. Really appreciate everybody who is members, subscribing members, and donates to the show, making everything happen. Also, please head on over to my YouTube channel, author Sarah F Hathaway, or just look up changing her series and you'll find me.

Um, you'll find both the podcast there and, uh, give it a like and subscribe. I'd really appreciate it if you guys went over there and did that. Um, yeah, stay safe. If you're in the path of the storm, please, you know, do what your preparedness plan dictates. And if you don't have one right now, shame on you, you know. If it's appropriate to evacuate, best to evacuate and just get out of there and live another day and worry about it later. But, yeah, hopefully everybody stays safe and healthy. And with this heat and the rains and the crazy storms, let's just get her done and start building our communities.

Alrighty, guys. Chen, thank you so much for coming, as always. Appreciate you. Thank you. You're the best. alrighty guys Chen thank you so much for coming as always appreciate you you're the best until next time remember dream survive thrive

thank you for joining Sarah and Chen for this episode of the Changing Earth Podcast don't forget to pick up your copy of Day After Disaster Without Land The Walls of Freedom, Battle for the South, Dark Days in Denver, and The Endless Night at www.authorSaraFHathaway.com. If you love the Changing Earth series and podcast, become a supporter while you're there.