#gulfnado

[iamaysunnonx]

Meet you somewhere over the 🌈.

[hara-hana]

Gulfnado 2016 or Thoughts on Self Care

I grew up flying, usually 2 to 4 times a year (TCK with divorced parents, whoot!), so I heard the pre-flight safety spiel a lot. One thing that always got to me was the “Attach oxygen mask to your own face before assisting others” line. Even as a 5 year old, it struck me as weird. Weren’t you supposed to help others FIRST, even until your last breath? I totally blame Disney; I probably watched Hercules a few too many times for my own good.

Fast forward to last month when I went to Gulf Wars, aka camping for a week in Mississippi with a bunch of awesome historical re-enactors. Second to last day of the event, we get a NASTY storm. Drenching rain for hours followed by local microbusts of 65 mph winds and two tornadoes within 4 miles of us. Tents collapsed, kingdom pavilions with expensive regalia inside collapsed, portajohns tipped, and food vendors shut down. It was wet, gross, relatively cold, and Not Much Fun.

Many of my friends darted out into the storm and helped folks. Meanwhile, I went back to my tent, made sure it was still standing and relatively dry inside, got my one wool garment, grabbed my tote of food, and camped out in the nearest building. I then proceeded to get warm, dry off, and stuff my face because it was dinner time and nobody likes it when I’m hangry, especially me.

And I felt like a bum.

Here I was with dry clothes, more food than I could eat, and a roof over my head while my smart phone and Facebook told me there was disaster happening all around me. I was sharing my food and candy, but others were doing that, too (and they had tasty cooked food that put my tinned fish, PB&J, and tortillas to shame).

What I didn’t realize was that I was doing a vital service: I was making sure that I didn’t become someone else’s emergency. All the clean, dry “period” clothes I had left was one linen outfit (that I needed to sleep in) and one wool shirt. If I had gone out and tried to help, I likely would have ended up chilled and probably would have thrown my back, knees, and/or hip out (chronic pain/joint problems, argh). Instead, I stayed inside, made sure volunteers coming off shift had all the chocolate they could eat, and I didn’t use up resources that folks who hadn’t been as lucky as me needed.

Not to say that all the folks who were able to go out into the storm and help don’t deserve a butt-ton of praise. Likewise, it was sheer luck that I was well off enough to take care of myself. But remember, it is okay—it is more than okay to take care of yourself first.

You can help a lot more people if you put the oxygen mask on yourself before assisting others. 

[miaofcalontir]

So before Gulf Wars dad helped me make purple leather boots. We have a leather sewing machine which even mannaged to sew thru the sole leather. They survived Gulfnado and remained dry. They are also super comfy.

[astridrkolbiarnardottir]

I survived Gulfnado! My soul pad complete with little bits of Mississippi from Gulf Wars at Known World Middle Eastern Dance and Drum.

[astridrkolbiarnardottir]

My first attempt at Shibori. This is similar to a Japanese tie dye but using voids. It dates back to the 8th Century. This was dyed in Turmeric, an excellent kitchen safe dye. I used two techniques to create the voids one was a special knotting and the other was akin to running stitch which seems to be a little less obvious.