Lessons from the snow....

Last Monday brought quite a bit of snow that started early in the day (and I mean quite a bit) and sub-zero temperatures. With this combination everything stopped.

People were spending the night on the motorway because they were stuck in traffic and couldn't get go anywhere. At one school (that I know of) faculty and students were spending the night because they weren't able to travel home. For two days I wasn't able to leave my village because public transport wasn't running.

Everything stopped.

During this time I learned some important lessons:

1. If you don't have enough room for food storage. Find a way to store some food, even if it's enough for a week, until you can find a way to have a larger supply. Luckily once I heard the report that we'll be having some snow, I remembered Mary telling me that last winter there were times that public transport stopped working. So I bought a little stock pile of food. I don't have a lot of storage space but I'm going to make sure I have at least a week's worth of food stocked in my cupboards.

2. I remember reading about creating emergency / food supply for your workplace and I never really thought anything of it. Now I can see the importance.

3. When I get a car again, I'm going to make sure I have a car emergency / food supply kit.

4. The best in strangers and neighbors come out when our lives leave the every-day routine due to circumstances beyond our control. We step up to the plate and help each other out. Here are my favorite examples:

One man, from a local restaurant, boarded a bus that had been stuck in traffic and handed out biscuits to the driver and passengers.

One man owns a Land Rover and he drove around towing people out of tight spots that needed help. During his drive he passed a women pulling her buggy and he stopped to give her a lift so her and the baby were out of the snow.

I found multiple stories of people leaving their cars to dig other cars out and pushing them to help get people off of the motorway.

Two businessmen spent the day digging out cars that were stuck in front of their shop and helping people get on their way. They came across an VERY pregnant lady, who was quite distressed, they had her come in, have tea and calm down. They spent the day helping others and they had to spend the night at their work.

A hotel manager, who had no empty rooms, kept letting people come and housed them in the restaurant and bar. Mother's with babies were given cots and they found extra duvets and pillows to hand out. The next day everyone that was stranded continued the kindness and helped dig each other's cars out.

The residents at one town walked up and down the queue for hours making sure the motorists that were stranded were ok and provided tea, coffee, soup, homemade biscuits, and cake.

Community spirit and helping others isn't lost, it's just sometimes forgotten with our busy lives. But wouldn't the world be wonderful if everyone was like this all the time?!