carbonated joy

As I write this, Hurricane Florence has made landfall in our home state of North Carolina. Our beautiful coast is being beat up and battered. We are four hours inland, we have been told to expect high winds, heavy rain, and power outages.

Our local over caffeinated meteorologists and friendly media people have told us to get prepared and hunker down.

Hunker down is actually really solid advice.

Hunker means to squat down and stay put.

It means to settle in and take shelter.

It’s good advice when storms hit.

Hunkering is really tough for some people.

They aren’t wired to hunker.

They would much rather hustle.

But sometimes you just got to hunker.

Since beginning my battle with the belly bully, pretty much all that I’ve done is hunker.

My job right now is to heal.

Sometimes, healing requires hunkering.

So, I hunker.

In fact, I have become an expert on the fine art of hunkering.

So, I want to share with you some helpful hunker help.

There are hundreds of books, blogs, and self help seminars to help you hustle, but surprisingly few can teach you how to hunker.

Fear not…

I am here for you.

Here are some things I have learned:

• Follow instructions! Listen to the authorities and experts, even when they seem to be overreacting. They might see things that you don’t.

• Learn some new card tricks! Sometimes we don’t like the hand of cards we are dealt in life, Don’t quit the game.

Learn some new card tricks.

• A good book can take you anywhere. If you are feeling cooped up, grab a book…not a text book, get some fun fiction and let it help you escape. In the last week, I have sailed the Caribbean and flown the Millennium Falcon.

• Snacks are important! Stock up on snacks. Everybody seems to stock up on bread and milk, evidently they plan on surviving on French toast. I would rather stock up on beef jerky and root beer. Get a variety of snacks that you like. Variety is important because sometimes things don’t taste the way you expected.

• Talk!

Spend time talking to God.

Spend time talking to your hunker buddies.

Remember to listen.

• Learn something. As long as we are living, we should be learning. The hunker times are powerful teachers, pay attention!

• Relax.

Take a breath.

Take a nap.

Squat down and stay put.

Hunker!!